
Book .TQ 



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A O U V, 

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OP 



PHYSICAL MAN 



SCIENTIFICALLY CONSIDERED. 



PROVING MAN TO HAVE BEEN CONTEMPORARY WITH THE MASTODON ; DETAILING 

THE HISTORY OF HIS DEVELOPMENT FROM THE DOMAIN OF THE 

BRUTE, AND DISPERSION BY GREAT WAVES OF 

EMIGRATION FROM CTJ«ITRAL ASIA. 



BY 

HUDSON "^TUTTLE, 



AUTHOR OF AKCANA OF NATURE, ETC. 



-Xi'^^O^ 



BOSTON: 
WILLIAM WHITE & COMPANY, 

158 WASHINGTON STREET. 
18 66. 




fossil ^Han - 



AGE 

H^ads etc. 



cfmsir.un uwAiomBisTOH, 






Entered, according to Act of Congress^ in the year 1865, by 
HUDSON TUTTLE, 
In the Clerk*s OflBce of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



Steeeotyped bt C. J. Peters & Son, 
No. 13, Washington Street. 



PREFACE. 



There are two classes of writers who produce two 
very distinct classes of books. The first are trained 
to write, as the gladiators were trained to fight, and 
are the present champions of the prize-ring. Li- 
braries and encyclopaedias are their weapons. The 
skilful use of these is their strength. They learn 
to polish periods, and write over other men's ideas, 
and by burnishing and varnishing, and a slight 
veneer of wording, present them so different that 
their authors do not recognize their own children. 
They do not write because they have any thing to 
say, but because there is honor and profit in the pen. 

The second class write because they have some- 
thing to say. Libraries are of little benefit to them, 
and because of their originality, they are not en- 
couraged by profit. I claim no skill in modelling 
sentences, or in the desirable art of presenting my 
subjects in their most pleasing forms; nor can I 
claim to belong to that class who have something 
worthy of record to say when they write. What, 



Ul 



IV PREFACE. 

then, is my apology for obtruding a book on an old 
and vexed theme ? It is briefly this : — 

I began an investigation of the philosophy of his- 
tory, going downward into the strata of earlier and 
pre-historic races. I at length came to the question 
of man's origin. It struck me that on its elucida- 
tion rested the science of history, — at least, here was 
its first great problem. • 

The reasoning I pursued in arriving at a solution 
I have recorded, faithfully marking the places where 
research is needed, where discoveries may be expect- 
ed, and where facts are wanting to fully establish the 
views suggested. I have sought to find the truth, 
and present it as clearly as possible, not to vindicate 
any favorite theory. In this research I have drawn 
largely on the works of the great scientists of the 
day. To Sir Charles Lyell, Darwin, Huxley, Carpen- 
tier, Pritchard, Miiller, Guyot, and Agassiz, I am par- 
ticularly indebted, and take pleasure in the acknowl- 
edgment. 

H. T. 

Boston, IVIass., 1866. 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

Vulgar Aim of History. — How Man solves the Question of his Individual 
Origin and that of the Race. — The Cosmogony of Genesis imperfect. — 
Agassiz' Theory no better. — The Theory of Unity, if Genesis be re- 
ceived, untenable. — Origin of Species. — The Geological Eecord. — The 
Position of Man, and his Relations. — The Grand Ideal of Nature is Life. 
— What is Life? — Classifications of the Races of Men. — Of Buflfon, 
Kant, Hunter, Netzau, Virey, Blumenbach, Desmoulins, Morton, Pick- 
ering, Bury de St. Vincent, Burke, Jacquinnot. — The Object of the 
Work 13 



CHAPTER L 
ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

Traditionary Chronology. — Effects of Prejudice. — Fossil Man. — Imper- 
fection of the Geological Record. — The Plan of Nature is to destroy the 
Products of Life. — Fossil Human Remains in the New World. — New- 
Orleans Skeleton, its Age calculated at 27,600 years. — Natchez Skeleton. — 
Human Fossils in Brazil. — Mounds of the Ohio. — In the Old World. 

— In the Loess of the Rhine. — In the Maastricht and Hocht Canal. 

— Arrow-heads of the Valley of the Somrae and Seine, of England. — 
€avekns. — Determination of Age of Bones by Amount of Organic Matter 
they contain. — Cave of Durfurt. — Caves in France. — Caves of Sailen- 
reuth, Coppingen, Kustritz ; of Gower, of North Sicily. — Lake Dwellings. 

— Danish Seat. — Danish Shell Mounds. — Sodertelzo Fossils, calculated 
Age 16,000 years. — Calculated Age of Arrow-heads in Peat of the Valley 
of the Somme 120,000 years. — Antiquity of Egyptian Civilization. — 
Fossil Remains of the Dog. — The Grotto of Sartel. — Summary . . 38 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IL 
RELATIONS OF MAN TO THE ANTHROPOID APES. 

The Climate of the Tertiary Warm. — Whence came the Savage of the 
Flint Arrow-head ? — Primates, no Break or Chasm between them and 
Man. — Fossil Primates, Drjopithecus, of the Swiss Jura, Eocene. — Lin- 
naean Classification of Primates. — Embryonic Form of the Primates. 

— Anthropoid, or Man-like Apes. — First Account of the Pongo. — 
Anatomical Structure. — The Gibbons. — Orang-Outang. — t- Chim- 
panzee. — Gorilla. — The Point of Man's Contact with the Animal 
World, the Quadrumania. — Comparison of Structure of the Hand, Foot, 
Vertebral Column, Pelvis, Skull, and Teeth. — Brain, Convolutions of. — 
Correspondence of Fossil Human Remains, the Engis Skull, the Nean- 
derthal! Skull. — Conclusions 66 

CHAPTER III. 
ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. 

The Myth of the Tower of Babel. — Is Man the only Being possessing Lan- 
guage ? — Growth of Language illustrated in the Eomance Tongues. — 
The Language of Aliimals. — Intonations of Savage Man. — Ideas of 
Savages. — Language the Expression of Ideas. — Poly synthes ism, its 
Outgrowths. — Comparison with the Growth of Living Beings. — Fossil 
Languages a sure Guide in History. — Inevitable Growth of Language. 

— The Sanskrit. — Eig-Yeda. — Difficulty of crossing Languages. — 
Rapid Changes in the Dialects of Savages. — The great Achievement 
of Comparative Philology, — the Discovery of an Ancient Tongue to 
which Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, &c., are mutually related. — Its Method 
of Research. — What is a just Estimate of the Affinities of Dialects? — 
Agassiz' Theory of Language opposed. — Conclusions 89 

CHAPTER IV. 

ORGANIC AND CLIMATIC CHANGES. 

Geographical Dispersion of Organic Beings in Relation, to Man. — The 
Great Zoological Provinces first distinctly marked immediately antece- 
dent to the Introduction of Man. — Cause of. — Climate of the Earth 
during the Tertiary. — Disappearance of Climatic Distinctions in the 
Secondary Strata. — Zoological Provinces of the Earth, — the 
Arctic Realm, the Asiatic, the European, the African, the Australian, 
the Indian, the Polynesian. — Realms, how defined, how produced. — 
The Principles applicable to the Dispersion of Animals also applicable 
to the Dispersion of the !Races of Men 112 



CONTENTS. VU 



CHAPTER V. 

THE UNITY OF MANKIND. 

Definition of Species. — Points of Agreement of all the Races of Men. — Lon- 
gevity. — Contagious Diseases. — Color of Skin. — Color of Eyes and 
Hair. — Texture of Hair. — Similar Variations observed in Animals. — 
Albinos. — Anatomical Comparison of the Races. — Measurements and 
Comparison of Skulls of. — Hybridity. — Egyptian Records. — Conclu- 
sions 124 



CHAPTER VL 

RELATION OF CONTINENTAL FORMS 

TOMAN. 

Bacon's Observation. — Analogies b>etween the Continents. — Typical Con- 
tinental Form. — The Three Double Worlds. — Benefits conferred on 
'Man by Contour of the Land. — Influence of Mountain Chains, and of 
Large Bodies of Water. — What is Acclimation ? — Application of fore- 
going Principles 139 



CHAPTER VIL 

THE FIRST WAVES OF DISPERSION: THE ORI- 
ENTAL NEGRO, AFRICAN AND SEMITE. 

The Oriental Negro, or the Australian Eace. — When originated the 
three Great Branches, Semitic, Turanian, Aryan?. — The Semitic. — 
Stnicture of Language; divided into Aramean, Hebrew, Arabian; De- 
scription of Character, Language and History of Each. — Nestorians. — 
Berbers. — Phoenicians. — Egyptians, Language of. Origin of, Shepherd 
Kings of. — Copts. — African Tribes of Semitic Origin ; Haussa, GffiUas, 
Berberins, Fellatah, Mandingoes, Yoloffs. — African Race. — Descrip- 
tion of. Origin of. — Divided into two Great Families, Kaffer and Hot- 
tentot. — Language of Africa. — The Damaras. — The Kaffer. — 
The Hottentot. — Description of, Language of, and History of Each. 

150 



Vlil CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VIII. 
THE NORTH TURANIAN RACES. 

Name, Derivation of. — Which are the Autochthonic, the Aborignal Eaces? — 
Wide extent of the Turanian Family. — Characteristics of Languages, 
Agglutination. — Successive Waves. — The Chinese. — Iberians. — Lapps. 

— Finns. — Permians. — Votiaks. — Tscheremisses. — Voguls. — Ostiaks, 
&c. — Samoiedes. — The Mongolians. — Turkish Race. — Turkomans. — 
Usbeks. — Kirgis. — Yakuts. — The Tungusians. — Mandshus. — Osti- 
aks of the Yenisei. — Yakagers. — Kamtschadales. — Aino. — Coreans. 

Japanese. — Lew-Chew Islanders. — American Indians, Similarity of. — 

Unity of, Origin of. — Origin of Indian Tribes. — The Incas and Aztecs, 
from whence Derived. — Relations between the Indians and Northern 
Asiatics. — The Destiny of the Eed Race. — Turanians of the Caucasus : 
Georgians, Circassians, Abysslnians 179 

CHAPTER IX. 
THE SOUTH TURANIAN RACES. 

The "Hill Tribes," or Dravidians of Hindostan. — Pritchard's Failurei*— 
The Bhills. — Pariahs. — Gonds. — Peoples of the Valleys of the 
Ganges and Brahmapootra. — Siamese. — Tai Tribes. — Bengalese. — 
Thugs. — The Polynesians, From whence Dispersed ? — Malays. 

— They are the Nomads of the Sea. — Vast Geographical Extent of this 
Eace. — Turanian Fragments in Africa. — Extent of Dispersion not an 

. Argument against Community of Descent .... i ... . 200 

CHAPTER X. 

THE ARYAN RACES. 

Who are Aryans ? — Origin of, and Attainments in Civilization before the 
Separation of its Component Eaces. — A Sketch of the Method of Linguis- 
tic Eesearch. — The Vendidad. and Zend-avesta. — Date of the Founda- 
tion of the Median Empire. — Indic Branch. — Prakrit, Sanskrit, and 
Zend. — The Gypsies. — The Ikanic, or Persian, Branch. — Effect of 
the religious system of Zoroaster. — The Language of the Magi. -^ 
Pure Persian. — The Afghans. — Buchars. — Kurds. — Belooches. — 
Armenians. — Assetes. — Parsees. — Guebres. — Northern Branch. — 
Pelasgi. — Thracians. — Kelts. — Sclavonians. — Lithuranians. — The 
Teutonic Eaces. — Their History, Customs, and Languages.^- From, 
whence came the Waves of People that devastated Eome ? — Goths. — 
Franks. — Saxons. — Alemanii. — Vandals, Longobards. — Huns. — Ee- 
lations of Languages. — Conclusions 209 



CONTENTS. IX 

s 

CHAPTER XL 
NATURAL SELECTION IN THE ANIMAL WORLD. 

The Exalted Position of Man. — The Arguments for the Origin of Species 
of Animals, by Natural Causes, apply to the Origin of Races of Men. — 
Consequences of the Introduction of one Being, and its Increase. — The 
Antagonist of Multiplication. — The Struggle for Life. — No Catastrophe, 
but Certain and Perpetual Change. — Illustrations. — The same Laws ap- 
plicable to Past as to Present Beings. — The two Antagonistic Forces. — 
Selection by Man. — Wherein different from that of Nature. — Selection 
by Nature. — Application to Man 235 

CHAPTER XII. 
CONCLUSION. 

The Geographical Seat of Man's Origin. — Natural Selection applied to 
Man 250 



THE 

OEIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN, 

SCIENTIFICALLY CONSIDERED. 



.INTRODUCTION. 

Vulgar Aim of History. — How Man solves the Question of his Individual 
Origin and that of the Race. — The Cosmogony of Genesis imperfect. — 
Agassiz' Theory no hetter. — The Theory of Unity, if Genesis be re- 
ceived, untenable. — Origin of Species. — The Geological Record. — The 
Position of Man, and his Relations. — The Grand Ideal of Nature is Life. 
— What is Life? — Classifications of the Races of Men. — Of Bufibn, 
Kant, Hunter, Netzau, Virey, Blumenbach, Desmoulins, Morton, Picker- 
ing, Bury de St. Vincent, Burke, Jacquinnot. — The Object of the Work. 

History has been content to chronicle the actions 
of mankind, and not until yesterday has it sought to 
philosophize on the events it recorded. Philosophy 
is avoided by the low aim of the simple narrations 
called histories. To reduce all the facts of the past 
to wide generalizations, so as to take in at a grasp the 
entire sum of human activity, is the" work of to-day. 
The origin of man lies at the. foundation of the phi- 
losophy of history, yet history affords little aid in the 
solution of this most complex problem. Before it 
opens its annals, the scaffolding has been torn away 
from the comparatively completed world ; and little 
trace remains to tell us how the structure was reared. 
Individual existence is too brief, and the historic pe- 

13 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

riod too limited, to allow us to pierce the mists which 
conceal the origin of passing events. We are inex- 
plicable enigmas. We stand up complete, and even 
tradition speaks in fable of our beginning. 

We learn of our individual origin by observing the 
origin of individuals like ourselves ; and, by analogous 
observations of the wider branches, — the savage types 
thrown off in his growth, — we can learn the pathway 
of man's ascent. 

Hitherto tradition has held the position of positive 
knowledge. Eevelation, too, has been distorted to 
the unholy office of fettering science. The question 
under discussion is not a theological one, unless the the- 
ologian pleases to make it so j and, should he so please, 
the task to him is willingly accorded. Here it is in- 
admissible, for we deal with facts ; and, as necessarily 
the conclusions of truthful reasoning stand side by 
side with truthful revelation, we shall take no pains 
to harmonize one with the other, but pursue our 
course to its results. For a moment only will I dwell 
on the salient points of the connection between the 
account of the creation contained in Genesis, and that 
of science. 

View it in whatever light we please, it is a strange 
fact that all the superior races of men have a more or 
less defined feeling of universal brotherhood. The 
common fatherhood is deeply felt, and unquestioningly 
received. Its rejection appears to be the result of 
false theories, or a mistaken notion of the manner in 
which this brotherhood resulted. Much bitterness has 
been manifested on both sides of this question with- 
out a step of advancement. 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

The literal interpretation of the account contained 
in Genesis is now held by the best authorities as un- 
tenable. It is allegorical ; and, as each authority 
explains the allegory as his fancy dictates, or in such 
a manner as matches it with his theory, it has little 
scientific value, — at least until better understood. 

The explanation of Agassiz, that mankind were first 
created in nations, so far from solving the question, 
renders it more confused. It carries us no nearer the 
real cause ; and, if we were before unable to account 
for the birth of the first pair, equally unable are we 
now of accounting for that of the mighty races and 
nations which start into being over the whole globe. 
Every great province of the earth has its own fauna, and 
its own race 'of men. " These," says the great natu- 
ralist, "are autochthonic, and were created where they 
are found ; and consequently there is no great tie of 
common origin, but each received birth by an inde- 
pendent creation." It is true, as he states, that the 
correspondence between the races of mankind and the 
faunas which, as it were, underlie them is very remark- 
able : ^^ One which cannot fail to throw light on the 
origin of the differences existing among men, since it 
shows that man's physical nature is modified by the 
same laws as that of animals, and that any general 
results obtained from the animal kingdom regarding 
the organic differences of its various types must also 
apply to man," an inference hereafter to be applied. 
This conclusion is followed by the startling assumption 
that such diversity of origin does not conflict w^ith 
the unity of the races and the common brotherhood 
of man. The two alternatives he presents are, birth 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

from a common stock, and that all subsequent changes 
are the results of diversity of surroundings, or that 
these changes result from a direct exertion of mirac- 
ulous power on the part of the Creator, and their 
distribution a part of his plan, ^' and human races, 
down to their specialization as nations, are distinct 
primordial forms of the type of man.'' Such are the 
conclusions to which one of the greatest scientific 
men of the age has arrived. After striving all his 
life to attain the real cause of phenomena, he qui- 
etly refer*s every thing he cannot solve to miraculous 
agency, — a conclusion unworthy of the age. 

Granting man to have bee^ created six thousand 
years ago, the Pritchard school have a bad cause to 
defend ; and, admitting such to be the true chronology, 
the conclusions of Agassiz must be received. If it be 
denied, then both fall with all the host of dependent 
writers. Even the supporters of unity have endeav- 
ored to prove that this unity centred in a single 
pair within historic time, and hence have not taken a 
step towards the solution of the question ; for, if 
mankind are referred to a single pair, created perfect, 
that pair, isolated as they necessarily must be from 
surrounding creation, must have been miraculously 
created. 

Great laws underlie and permeate creation, on 
whose atlas shoulders all things are supported. No 
province of nature is exempt from their sway, and 
in no case are they for a moment set aside. Ignorance 
only sees miracle and direct exertion of power. We 
know that we exist by the power of fixed and im- 
mutable principles, and consequently we must have 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

originated through their agency. We know that the 
universe is a unity of forces ; that the realm of life is 
governed throughout its .vast extent by fixed princi- 
ples, which, applying to all beings, to the highest and 
the lowest, bind them all together, and infallibly 
point to a common source. 

It has been well remarked, that, if we grant the 
common origin of mankind, we must also that of the 
animal world, and be pushed to the transcendental 
philosophy of Lamarck. We accept the premises, 
and the greater portion of the philosophy of one 
of the greatest naturalists Europe has produced. It 
is on this basis that the proofs of the common origin 
of the animal world have a direct bearing on the 
origin of mankind. 

Species of animals and plants have their origin in 
the lowest forms of life ; and their progress, and the 
characteristics which distinguish them, are results of 
physical conditions combined with the peculiarities of 
the beings on which they are exerted.*^ This is sup- 
ported by a vast array of facts drawn from organic 
nature. The changes produced by domestication and 
the artificial selection of man ; the still more potent 
force of natural selection by which only the most 
vigorous indiyiduals are preserved; the study of 
transitional varieties ; the laws of hybridity and vari- 
ationj^— all afford immutable pillars of support to this 
theory, which applies with equal truth to man. 

The geological records of the earth substantiate the 
foregoing conclusions, and prove that progress is the 
plan* of creation in this world. In order to under- 

* See Darwin's Origin of Species. 

2 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

stand the idea of progress introduced into this work, 
and show how man is indissolubly united to the animal 
realm, I pause to condense Jn a few sentences the 
progress of the earth and its living tenants as revealed 
by the light of the only rational theory yet promul- 
gated. 

From the increasing temperature as the earth is 
penetrated toward the centre, the volcanic character 
presented by the moon, the arrangement of the solar 
system, it has been theoretically advanced with almost 
the conclusiveness of mathematical demonstration, that 
the earth was once in a fluid state from ignition, and 
farther yet in a gaseous condition. Inherent forces 
outwrought a solar system from this primitive gaseous 
chaos. This was the first state of advancement, from 
which a steady progress is observed to the present. 
The rock-volume of earth, as read by the light of 
science, presents a constant succession of the grandest 
advances. A crust cools over the fiery globe, on the 
jagged surface of which, when suflSciently solid, wa- 
ter condenses from the atmosphere, running down into 
the hollows, forming boiling pools. These unite, 
forming shallow seas, which when sufficiently cooled, 
living beings are generated. 

Not the highest forms of life, however, but the 
lowest ; mere masses of cells having the appearance 
of irregular fragments of jelly. Billions of ages 
rolled away into the past eternity before a single 
vertebrate animal came ; and when they were intro- 
duced it was only the lowest forms, — the fishes, and 
the lowest of the fishes. • 

Then came frog-like, bird-like, and marine reptiles ; 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

the huge and terrible saurians of the old world, span- 
ning in multitudinous shapes several vast geological 
ages. Then came gigantic mammals, the latest types 
of which were the mastodon and mammoth. With 
the latter came the existing fauna, with man as its 
highest type. 

From this brief outline we can gather an idea of 
the position of man, and the relations he sustains to 
the inorganic and organic creations beneath him. 

A more extensive or interesting subject for study 
could not well be selected. Standing as man does 
between the brutes of the field on one hand, and the 
angels of light on the other ; forming a bridge span- 
ning the gulf between material forms, which perish, 
and those who bask in eternal light, — an investigation 
of his relations reaches through all grades of intelli- 
gence ; through all forms of matter ; from the pebble 
beaten by the surf on the ocean's shore, to the throne 
of Deity.' 

For man is the representative of the universe ; the 
grand archetype of creation, in whom all elements, 
principles, and forms are unitized. 

The grand idea of Nature is life. The highest evo- 
lution of creative energy is a perfect living being. 
Strange, incomprehensible, is hfe and its laws. I 
know not if an arcJiangelj ripe iif the lore of a thou- 
sand ages, could answer the question what it is better 
than a child. We may understand many of its laws, 
and necessary conditions, but its Jiiial causes remain 
sealed ; and the hand of science vainly essays to break 
and read its arcana. 

What is life ? It is the turmoil of elemental forces, 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

the rush of storms, the crash of ocean, the sparkle of 
sunlight, the whirl of suns and worlds ; for what we 
call inorganic nature, is really organic ; and suns and 
worlds are globules floating in the great arteries of 
the universal system. The principles we see mani- 
fested in the harmony of arrangement, the beautiful 
adaptation of means to ends, are the tJioughts of that 
universal whole. 

The imponderable agents of light, heat, magnetism, 
electricity, are the messengers and executors of those 
thoughts. We call these manifestations life, for they 
correspond to the life of a living being. It is the* 
gigantic exhibition of identical forces concentrated 
and individualized, but dwarfed in ourselves."^ 

When we see the whirlwind rushing past, or view 
•the terrible energies of the ocean, or gaze into the 
profound and awfully silent depths of the starry night, 
all our emotions are derived from the instinctive feel- 
ing of unity and brotherhood with these. The rave 
of the storm-swept sea beats on our hearts, and finds 
responsive strains ; the mad violence of the tempest 
awakes the consciousness of slumbering tempests in 
our bi'ain ; and the grandeur of starry worlds pro- 
duces a corresponding grandeur of being within us. 

For our being is cosmopolitan. Thefe is nothing 
but what we have b^en elementally ; and, elementally 
and organically, all things are represented in us. 

Living beings are the separations of these forces, 
so terrible and gigantic in the world of elements, 
their individualization. How this was effected would 
require the history of the globe : the geological hiero- 
glyphics of the great rock-volume of earth alone can 

* See Arcana of Nature. -_ 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

reveal the biography of life from the point where it 
touches the geometrically formed crystal, and its as- 
cension to the myriad forms we behold around us. 

Does the heart pulsate ? it does so by the same force 
by which our earth is chained to the sun, and rolled 
along its orbit. Does the blood circulate ? so does the 
aqueous fluid of our planet. The currents of wind 
and clouds are the arteries, rivers its veinous system, 
and the oceans temporary receptacles. Does the stom- 
ach digest ? see how matter is digested by the earth, 
ever eliminated in more sublimated forms. Above all, 
does the brain think ? so do the elements. See how un- 
deviatingly they run on their missions, and with what 
wonderful perfection they accomplish their tasks. A 
continent is parched by drought : see the winds take 
up water from the sea, and drench it until vast Ama- 
'^ons and Orinocos run from its deluged back. There is 
coo much moisture ; and the winds waft it away. A 
chaos exists, of conflicting elements : see how, under 
the influence of their co-eternal attributes, they evolve 
worlds and suns, and harmony springs from discord, 
or beautiful solar systems roll out of darkness into 
light. . 

Child of the Eternal, thy being pulsates with the 
eternal of nature because thou art eternal. They 
awake awe in thee because of the dim consciousness 
that all are but accidents of thy being, to melt and 
vanish, away as thou proceedest on thy course. 

Life, as a general expression, is divided into two 
branches, — one characteristic of animals, the other 
of vegetables. We may call that common to animals 
and vegetables, organic life ; that confined to animals, 



22 INTRODUCTION. 

animal life. While plants have only life, as it were 
only existing^ man has two distinct existences, the 
other and higher being differentiated through the 
lower forms of animal being. He possesses two lives, 
vegetative and animal life. Intricately blended as these 
are, they are governed by distinct and wholly sepa- 
rate laws. 

Through the organic laws man reaches down to 
the plant, and becomes brother with flower, fruit, and 
tree; acknowledges closest relationship with fucoids 
of the sea, palms of tropic climes, and alpine pines. 
As the organic functions are internal, they are purely 
selfish, and only act to build up the organic structure 
by the processes of assimilation, as digestion, circula- 
tion, nutrition, and, in the equally necessary processes 
of its destruction, as exhalation, secretion, and excre- 
tion. These functions are held in common by man 
and plants. They are independent of mind, and pro- 
ceed uninterruptedly, the mind being unconscious 
of their operations during their normal state. His 
animal life is external, bringing him in contact with 
other objects. It is his conscious existence. 

If we examine anatomically the organs by which 
these two lives are carried on, we shall find that 
while the organs of purely organic life are very irreg- 
ular, as stomach, liver, &c., and their functions being 
equally well performed however great their departure 
from the common type, the organs of animal life are 
rem^vkBhlj symmetrical, as the brain, organs of vision, 
hearing, &c., and the slightest departure is accom- 
panied by impaired functions, or entire destruction. 

These processes go on normally, wholly unheeded 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

by the mind. Its powers are not wasted on the most 
important organic functions, but are reserved for 
those of conscious existence. 

The animal hfe is not necessarily unintermittent, 
but the reverse. Vision, being, sensation, thought, 
cannot be long exercised without repose. This re- 
pose is in a great measure dependent on their double 
character. When one organ is weary, the other can 
be used ; as, when the right arm fails, we use the left. 

By these periods of action and repose, this life is es- 
sentially different from the other : the dull monotony 
of ceaseless action is relieved. By this means we are 
enabled to compare one state with the other ; and, as 
comparison is the first step of progress, to this seem- 
ingly unimportant fact our progress from infancy is 
referable. By it the cry of the infant is developed 
into the speech of manhood, and its crude thoughts 
ripened into maturity, — results referable to constant 
action broken by rest. 

The organic functions never improve. They are as 
perfect at infancy as at manhood. Although the size 
of these organs increases, there is no progress in their 
offices. They are closely related to the undeviating 
actions of the inorganic or mineral world. In fact the 
offices of excretion and secretion can be performed by 
mineral membranes, equally well as by living tissue ; 
and digestion, the most mysterious of all vital func- 
tions, takes place in the test-glass of the chemist as 
well as in the living stomach ; and even tissue, held to 
be entirely dependent for its formation on living bodies, 
has not only been created by the chemist, but the min- 
eral elements have been compelled to unite by means 



24 INTRODUCTION. 

of electric currents, and from the compounds thus 
produced tissue has been created identical with those 
of living beings. 

In this vast and unexplored field, we find our exist- 
ence going down to the basis of all existence, the min- 
eral realm; and our proud natures acknowledge the 
supremacy of purely inorganic laws, which arise and 
permeate the domain of life, the mysterious laws of 
which, to the borders of its spiritual province, appar- 
ently are but modifications of those ruling the inor- 
ganic world. 

When we study the structure of our body, we at 
once see that all its functions are strictly like those 
of animals. The blood flows in our veins by the same 
law, — by a similar combination of arteries and veins, 
heart and lungs, as in all warm-blooded animals. The 
processes of digestion, assimilation, secretion, &c., are 
identical. A unity pervades the kingdom of living 
beings. They are all moulded after one plan, and 
man is the archetype of that plan, — its perfection. 

The reptile has a heart ; but it is so imperfect, only 
half its blood is oxygenated at once. The heart of man 
is like that.of the reptile, only (what we find presaged 
in the highest reptiles by a partially formed mem- 
brane) another division is added. Instead of these, his 
has four chambers ; and the thick, turgid blood of the 
reptile, in his veins, being fully oxygenated, glows 
with sparkling vermilion, and is qualified to build a 
body adequate to the manifestation of the highest 
mentality. 

The dolphin has a fin ; the seal a rude attempt at an 



INTRODUCTION. ^S 

arm ; the lion a claw ; the monkey tribe a hancl^ farther 
perfected in maUj and rendered capable of the most 
varied attainments. Wide as the interval between 
the fin of the dolphin and the hand of man may ap- 
pear, yet in elements they are the same. In number 
of bones and their arrangement they are embryonically 
identical ; one plan is everywhere present. The dol- 
phin's fin, the huge flipper of the whale, the massive 
foot of the elephant, have the same elements as the 
hand of the child, only they are relatively differently 
developed. 

Man stands at the head of the vertebrate division, 
and is the highest in the mammalian class. The 
characteristic of this division is the possession of a 
back-bone, or vertebral column, which is divided into 
sections called vertebrce, whence is derived vertebrate. 
Throughout the mammalian class, all species have an 
equal number of vertebrae in their embryonic state. As 
the different species becoine matured, the vertebra 
unite : and consequently in the adult animal their 
number varies. Man conforms, in number, with his 
class. The only modification is in form, by which the 
pelvic regions, the lumbar vertebrae, are enabled to 
support the weight of the entire body in the erect 
posture. The same may be said of the muscles ; but 
they are enlarged in this region to meet the require- 
ments of the erect position of the spine. No new eJe- 
ment, however, is added ; and, as will be hereafter 
seen, this peculiarity, through the anthropoid apes, 
imperceptibly shades into the lower animals. The 
vertebral column, in its highest form, is a series of 
flexible bones, so articulated and -modified as tb meet 



26 INTRODUCTION. 

the demands of their position. There is a wide differ- 
ence between the vertebrata in this respect, and the 
other divisions. While the articulata have a crust or 
shell over the entire surface of their bodies, to which 
the muscles are attached, and by which the internal 
organs are supported and protected, the vertebrata 
have an internal skeleton, which is a system of levers, 
giving form, support, and protection to the softer parts. 
As the vertebral column is the characteristic of the 
highest division of life, and in man culminates in that 
flower of nature, the brain, every thing connected 
with it assumes interest and importance. 

Bone is a living, growing, vascular substance, unit- 
ing when fractured. In this it differs from the shells 
of moUusks and crusts of insects, which are unvascu- 
lar, and grow by addition of layers to their circumfer- 
ence, and may be cast off when too small, and by 
exudition others formed. When animals are fed on 
colored food it will penetrate their bones, and stain 
them of its peculiar color. A pig fed on food in which 
madder was mixed was foiind to have its bones stained 
dark red. This shows that bones grow, that their 
substance is slowly removed, and new particles are 
introduced. 

Bones in the embryo are represented in form by a 
thin, glairy liquid, which slowly changes to cartilage, 
in which the particles of lime are deposited concen- 
trically around the blood-vessels which penetrate the 
first model, in concentric layer's, or, in flat bones, in 
plates connecting them. 

The characteristic vertebral column is made up of 
pieces or segments, called vertebrae. Variously modi- 



INTRODUCTION. 27 

fied as these appear in different animals, or in the 
same animal, they are all reducible to one type. 

These vertebrae are subject to great variation ; so 
much so as often to obscure the general type. It 
was but lately that the generaHzation was wrought 
out, that all the bones of the vertebral column were 
directly referable, whatever might be their form, 
to the primitive form of the vertebra. In the cen- 
tral portions of the body the vertebrae most nearly 
approach their typical form ; and, in either direction, 
they become modified as the distance increases. Ap- 
proaching the caudal extremities, all parts but the 
central mass become gradually obscured until noth- 
ing but a shapeless mass of bone, without even a 
perforation for the spinal cord, remains. In the other 
direction, the change, although different, is equally 
great, as is seen in the parietal segment of the skull 
of man. 

Now it is essential that the structure be well under- 
stood, for on its modifications depend the countless 
changes in character we shall observe in the verte- 
bratse. 

In the skull we see the widest departure from this 
type. The haemal arch is reduced, and the neural 
arch is enormously expanded to enclose the brain. 
The hasmal arch is here converted into jaws, and 
acquires, with its new functions, the teeth and the 
accompanying organs. 

A great modification occurs also in those vertebrae 
to which the limbs are attached. The limbs them- 
selves are accessory organs, budding from appropriate 
vertebrae. Often several, generally three or five, ver- 



28 INTRODUCTION. 

tebr^e unite in one solid mass ; the elements of which 
are, however, plainly perceptible. These form the 
pelvic bones, and from them the hind limbs are put 
forth. 

In the amphioxus, the spinal column exists in the 
the same state as in the embryos of higher species : 
it is but a simple tube of glairy liquid ; and obscure 
fibrous bands are the only indication of its division 
into segments. 

The fibrous bands become cartilage, the central 
portions remaining undivided. At this stage the 
skeleton of the sturgeon is arrested. The points of 
these bands next become converted into bone, as in 
many fossil fishes. More commonly the next step is 
attained when the central portion of the spinal cord 
is divided, the ossification of all the parts being im- 
perfect as in the sharks. But ossification is never 
complete in fishes, the juncture of the vertebrae 
being left hollow, so that they unite by concave sur- 
faces, the cavity being filled with a glairy fluid. 
The flexibility of the bones of fishes can be readily 
tested, showing their cartilaginous character. 

The elements of vertebrae are remarkably mod- 
ified in the turtles. The row of plates along the 
back are modified spinal processes; those on the sides, 
the ribs; while the under half of the shell is the modi- 
fied breast-bone. Great as this departure appears, it 
is not so very remarkable ; the ribs are consolidated 
-and brought on the outside. 

Prom the amphioxus up to man all gradations are 
observed, consisting chiefly in the acquisition of 
limbs. In fishes, the vertebrae unite with concave 



INTRODUCTION. 29 

surfaces. As we arise through the sauroid fishes 
to the reptiles, their surfaces become flattened, as in 
mammals^ and we find diverging branches. In rep- 
tiles they are generally united with a ball and socket, 
one side of the vertebrse remaining concaye, while 
the other is largely developed into a ball, which, tak- 
ing its form from the opposite surface, of course, is 
nicely fitted and adjusted. In mammals they oppose 
straight surfaces to each other. 

The number of vertebraD possessed by different 
animals greatly varies. It is greatest in serpents ; also 
very great in saurians, from the enormous develop- 
ment of tail. Many monkeys, from the same cause, 
have a prodigious number. The loss of the caudal 
appendage, as in the apes, greatly reduces the num- 
ber. In mammalia, except from this variation, the 
number remains very constant ; the excessively long 
neck of the giraffe having no greater number than 
the pig,, which can scarcely be said to have any neck. 
In the former case they are greatly elongated; in 
the latter, shortened and compressed. Man, too, has 
the almost constant number, seven, vertebrae in his 
neck. 

We thus see how one primary element, the simple 
vertebrae, by its countless modifications produces all 
the diversity of the vertebrated kingdom. A gelat- 
inous tube, it forms the spinal column of the sturgeon ; 
partially ossified, and converted from cartilage to 
bone, those of the shark and ray ; its opposing sur- 
faces, remaining undeveloped, oppose concavities in 
the fishes and in the loAvest of the reptiles ; in ser- 
pents, they are articulated by the ball and socket 



30 INTRODUCTION. 

joint ; the lowest mammalia, the marsupials, also by 
a ball and socket, showing their ascent from the ba- 
trachians, or frogs. In mammals, as in the higher sau- 
rians of the fossil world, by square surfaces ; ^ line 
of jelly in the amphioxus ; a tube in the sturgeon ; a 
piece of hollow bone in the tail of the crocodile ; a 
solid mass of bone giving off* ribs in the dorsal re- 
gions of all mammalia, thus protecting and supporting 
the vital agencies ; giving off* the limbs of quadru- 
peds, or spreading around the brain, plates of bone 
protectiog it from injury, and in front sending out its 
appendages, previously acting as ribs, to become 
facial bones, and jaws for the prehension and masti- 
cation of food, * ever presenting the same primary 
elements. 

By this comparison of the bony case which en- 
closes the spinal cord and brain, we see the intimate 
structural relation of man to the animal. By the 
comparison of vascular, or nervous systems, this beau- 
tiful unity is constantly developed ; but nowhere 
more beautifully than in the changing adaptation of 
the limbs. 

The limbs are merely appendages to the vertebrae. 
This is a startling statement when the complex limbs 
of the higher mammalia, as of man, are considered ; 
but, by tracing their development downwards, we 
arrive at the rudimental forms where we can see the 
actual process of transformation. 

In the great divisions of life each strives to at- 
tain locomotion by means peculiar to itself They 
all employ analogous means ; but the real nature of 
the organs thus used is very different. Thus, the 



INTRODUCTION. 31 

limb of a grasshopper, to appearance, is like the 
limb of an ox or horse, but in reality it is entirely 
different, as will be shown. 

As animals cannot extract nutriment from the soil, 
as they depend on living beings for nourishment, it is 
essential to their maintenance that they be provided 
with proper organs to pursue and capture their prey. 
Such organs are given most animals ; arid those which 
are destitute are furnished with other apparatus by 
which they attach themselves to floating bodies, or 
are drifted by currents. 

We shall only consider the fore-arm, as it furnishes 
a perfect illustration of our subject. Its most rudi- 
mentary form is found in the lepiodosiren. They are 
simple-jointed, rod-like members. In the next higher 
form, the amphioxus, we find these rod-like limbs 
becoming jointed, and two digital rays formed ; and, 
ascending to the proteus, a still further complication 
and approximation to mammalia. 

There is a type or model preserved throughout the 
entire vertebrate kingdom which is ever followed. 
The limb is always composed of the same elements ; 
some of these may be dwarfed, and when the animal 
is matured, confounded with others ; some may be 
greatly enlarged or changed in form, but all are 
represented. This model is the most perfectly ex-^ 
pressed in the arm and hand of man. From it we 
will trace the chief departures by which vertebrate 
animals adapt themselves to the various functions 
they perform. Lowest of all is the rod-like member 
of the lepiodosiren, in which there is no apparent 
differentiation of organs. 



32 INTRODUCTION. 

In fishes it is necessary that a resisting surface be 
opposed to the water, like an oar. This cannot be 
situated at a distance from the body; for then the 
leverage would be too great, and instantaneous move- 
ment, which is required, could not "be attained. 
Hence it is that the humerus and radius and ulna 
are shortened or almost obliterated, while the carpal, 
bones remain ; and the digital, becoming augmented 
in number by vegetable repetition, become rays for 
the support of membrane forming fins. 

The same object -is attained in the feet of aquatic 
reptiles by their having a web-like membrane spread 
between the toes of their feet. In the frog, for in- 
stance, we see the digital bones greatly elongated, 
md supporting a thin, tough membrane. As the foot 
necessarily contracts when brought forward, this 
membrane folds up; but when thrown backwards the 
foot expands, and of course this membrane is stretched 
so as to offer the greatest resisting surface. 

In the paddle of the dolphin, whale, and other ma- 
rine mammalia, the same mechanical objects are 

attained bv the same means. The bones of the arm 

*/ 

are shortened and wholly buried in the body of the 
animal, the digital and carpal bones only remaining 
on the outside, giving support to the membrane form- 
ing the fin. 

In bats, the object is to form an animal for flight; 
and we see this accomplished by the enormous devel- 
opment of the four digital members, and stretching a 
fine membrane over them ; the three remaining, as 
will be seen, of the ordinary size, and serving other 
purposes. 



INTRODUCTION. 33 

In birds, the object is the same as in bats; but it is 
accomplished by quite different means. The bones 
of the arm remain unchanged, but the carpal bones 
are obliterated as well as most of the digital. Gener- 
ally, however, two or more of the latter remain, and 
their first joints become greatly enlarged. The 
thumb bones sometimes become converted into a 
spur, as in the domestic fowl. 

In the deer and most quadrupeds the humerus, ulna, 
and radius remain unchanged ; but the carpal bones 
become consolidated and elongated, while the digital 
are confounded in a hoof, or, if remaining separate, 
are armed with claws. 

Throughout the entire series, we perceive the same 
elements. All conform to a common type ; and the 
changes, when viewed by the clear light of science, 
are very slight between contiguous species. 

These elements are always recognizable. Thus, 
commencing at the shoulder, we first meet with, the 
shoulder bone, — scapula ; joining this, generally, we 
meet the humerus, it being only in fishes that it 
remains undeveloped; next the ulna and radius, 
wliose presence can be always seen, though one of 
them may remain in a rudimentary condition. At 
t!]e wrist joint are the carpal bones, usually ten in 
number, forming two rows ; but they may be reduced 
by non-development to any number less, even to 
one. Next is the metacarpal bones, usually five, but 
often reduced in the higher vertebrata to four, three, 
two, or one ; whilst in fishes they may be multiplied 
to twenty or more. Lastly, we find the digital bones, 
usually five sets, each composed of three or more 

3 



34 INTRODUCTION, 

bones, but which are subject to the same reduction or 
multiplication as the metacarpal, to which they are 
attached. On the modification of these bony ele- 
ments entirely depends the special adaptation of spe- 
cies, enabling them to be used for terrestrial, aquatic, 
or aerial locomotion; for diving, swimming, tearing, 
lacerating, seizing ; or entering into the refined 
mechanism which enables the human hand to serve 
the dictates of intellect with such certainty and ac- 
curacy. 

Ultimate analysis of the constituents of man's body, 
and of animals, shows identical results. A myriad 
compounds, products of decay, spring from the disso- 
lution of his form as well as theirs. Ammonia, Cyan- 
ogen, the Prussiates, and their countless combinations, 
arise from the wreck of his mortality. He assimilates 
the grains and herbs of the herbivora, and produces 
flesh like theirs ; he assimilates the ready-made flesh 
of the herbivora, and builds a system .like the carnivora. 
Whether he partake of plant or animal, or mix both 
with mineral ingredients, he on every hand acknowl- 
edges the closest physical relations with the lower 
animal world. It is absurd and childish to deny this 
relationship, which science every day makes more 
complete. No reasoning can be sound unless it keeps 
this truth clearly in view, and hence the diverse races 
of men may not have originated from a single pair; 
but unity of type they all display points to a common 
source. Nowhere can lines of demarcation be clearly 
drawn, so imperceptibly do the families of mankind 
blend at their circumferences. The various classifica- 
tions which have been attempted are so many proofs 



INTRODUCTION. 35 

of unity of origin ; and their confliction shows the 
fallacy of the" theory of diversity. There are no race 
marks which are reliable ; and those thought perma- 
nent, undoubtedly are so only by the equilibrium estab- 
lished between man and his externals, of which they 
are the expression. 

Buffon makes six varieties of mankind; viz., — Polar 
Negro, Tartar, American, Australian, Asiatic, Euro- 
pean. Kant divides man into four varieties, white, 
black, copper, and olive ; Hunter, into seven varieties; 
Xetzau, into two ; Virey, into three ; Blumenbach, into 
five ; Desmoulins, into sixteen sjoecies ; Bury de St. 
Vincent, into fifteen; Morton, into twenty-two families ; 
Pickering, into eleven races ; Burke, into sixtj^-three ; 
Jacquinnot, into three species of one genus. Such are 
the disagreements of those who have devoted them- 
selves to this study. Granting that mankind are 
classified by any of these systems, I cannot see how 
knowledge is advanced. We cannot admit that man- 
kind can. have diversity of origin, while so united by 
one great plan. If a species or variety of the genus 
Homo sprang up in Europe, and another in America, 
by agency of conditions existing in those localities, it 
would be beyond probability that they should both be 
formed on the same plan : what then of the possibility 
of sixty-three or more species being formed on the 
same model? Deny we may, with plausibility, the 
origin of the diverse races from a single pair six 
thousand years ago; but the bond of union which exists 
between them points to a common source. 

I see no necessity of obscuring this subject with a 
tedious classification, and shall introduce none. The 



36 INTRODUCTION. 

classification adopted in the following description of 
races of men is one founded on the study of languages, 
and is similar in results to the classification of animals 
by embryology, or, in other words, by parentage. Each 
great wave of peoples is thrown together, so that we 
reduce the divisions to the simplest terms, and discard 
color, form, and all the accidental eifects of conditions. 

This classification is thus presented : — 

Oriental Negro — Australian, &c. 

African — The Cafifres and Hottentots. The peoples 
of Africa south of the Mountains of the Moon. 

Semites — Hebrews, Arabians, Armenians. 

Turanians — American Indians, the innumerable 
peoples of North-Eastern Asia, and a great portion of 
the peoples of Hindostan. 

Aryans — The peoples of Europe, the ruling race 
of Hindostan, and many scattered nationalities. 

This classification is presented fully in the accom- 
panying ethnological chart, and accompanying expla- 
nation. 

I said color and the effects of accidents in this 
classification are disregarded. If it be examined, we 
shall find that there are people classed with Turanians 
that have pure Aryan features and light complexion ; 
and there are those classed with Aryans — the class 
pre-eminently white — as dark as the lightest Africans. 
The lines of this classification strike directly across 
the distinctions which have been considered eminently 
characteristic. This may appear fatal to this system ; 
but it is found on closest inspection that language, the 
expression of the mind, is less influenced by condi- 
tions than the physical form ; and while the latter is 



INTRODUCTION. 37 

greatly modified, the fandamental structure of speech 
remains unchanged.- So far as history furnishes aid 
it is gladly received; but the period over which it 
extends is so limited, in comparison with the ages of 
man's advance which precedes it, that it yields but 
little light. Reliance must be placed in the perfection 
of philological research, the results of which will be 
given in the following pages. 

The problem we are to discuss will involve the 
investigation of the origin, science, and relations of 
language ; the geographical distribution of races ; the 
relation of man to physical conditions ; a survey of the 
races of men; and an inquiry into the causes of 
deviation. 



CHAPTER I. 
ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

Traditionary Chronology. — Effects of Prejudice. — Fossil Man. — Imper- 
fection of the Geological Eecord. — The Plan of Nature is to destroy the 
Products of Life. — Fossil Human Remains in the New World. — New- 
Orleans Skeleton, its Age calculatedat 27,600 years. — Natchez Skeleton. — 
Human Fossils in Brazil. — Mounds of the Ohio. — In the Old World. 

— In the Loess of the Rhine. — In the Maastricht and Hocht Canal. 

— Arrow-heads of the Valley of the Somme and Seine, of England. — 
Caverns. — Determination of Age of Bones by Amount of Organic Matter 
they contain. — Cave of Durfurt. — Caves in France. — Caves of Sailen- 
reuth, Coppingen, Kustritz ; of Gower, of North Sicily. — Lake Dwellings. 
— ■ Danish Seat. — Danish Shell Mounds. — Ssdertelzo Fossils, calculated 
Age 16,000 years. — Calculated Age of Arrow-heads in Peat of the Valley 
of the Somrae 120,000 years. — Antiquity of Egyptian Civilization. — 
Fossil Remains of the Dog. — The Grotto of Sartel. — Summary. 

The theological system supported by Christendom 
maintains that man was introduced on the globe about 
six thousand years ago by a direct miracle. However 
derived, this belief has excited a baneful influence on 
the progress of geology, and the science of history. 
It makes a wide difference in our view^s whether we 
regard man as a once perfect and fallen being, or a 
savage progressing to perfection; whether he was 
created sixty centuries ago, or has developed from the 
lowest state through myriads of ages. This pre-con- 
ceived opinion, founded on infallibility and revelation, 
has stood directly in the way of geological discovery 
in pushing the antiquity of man beyond its dictum. 
Without this mythological prejudice, the date of*man's 



ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 39 

origin would never have been placed at so recent a 
period ; and with it, scientific men thrust aside the 
most conclusive evidence with a sneer. Cuvier pro- 
nounced the most decided fossil human bones recent ; 
and Buckland, to vindicate his theology, concluded 
that human remains found beneath those of numerous 
extinct animals belonged to historic time. 

More than half a century ago fossils were discov- 
ered, which, had they belonged to any other animal, 
would have at once, and beyond doubt, placed that 
animaPs origin back to the strata in which they were 
interred ; but, belonging to man, and overthrowing 
existing chronological dates, they went for nothing. 
Slowly and patiently scientists have labored ; and now 
a mass of facts are presented which challenge refuta- 
tion. The most thorough scientific men of the world 
accept these facts, regardless of the voice of theology. 
We are receiving, for the first time, positive knowl- 
edge. We have lost the given date of man's advent ; 
but we have ascertained that years are nothing when 
dealing with periods only expressed by eons or myr- 
iads of millions. We can only learn the order of 
events : their date is nothing. 

An unconquerable prejudice has existed against the 
discovery of fossil man. I have mentioned and need 
not enlarge on its cause. Fossil man destroys chron- 
ological dates, man's fall ; and then why, if not fallen, 
needs he redemption ? 

Considering the determination to ignore such dis- 
coveries, a very great progress has been made in 
accumulation of material. It is true they are in many 
cases *not as explicit as might be wished ; but, as a 



40 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

whole^ they furnish a mass of evidence which cannot 
be gainsaid. A few years will fill this gap in paleon- 
tology, and geology and natural history will perfectly 
join. It is not strange that so few fossil human 
remains have been brought to light. Compared with 
the vast dimensions of the earth's crust, a fossil is a 
small affair. If we assume the 'existence of an ani- 
mal, say, the dog, at any geological era taken at ran- 
dom, it is a thousand times more probable that that 
animal existed in that era than that its remains will 
be discovered. In localities where they are known 
to exist, they are rarely met with. The reports of 
experienced dredgers show that, although they ex- 
plore the bottom of the sea for hundreds of miles 
near shores peopled with millions of inhabitants, and 
in the route of countless sails, works of art are rarely 
found, and human remains, almost never. 

When the Harlem Lake was drained in 1853, in dig- 
ging the great canal, and thousands of miles of ditches, 
although it had been a thoroughfare for vessels, and 
a dense population had dwelt on its shores for ages, 
only a few coins and the wrecks of two Spanish ships 
were discovered ; not a vestige of human remains. 

Nowhere should negative evidence be accepted 
with greater caution than in geology. Dr., Schmer- 
ling, after having found flint tools in forty-two Bel- 
gian caves, only found human bones in three or four. 
Not till 1855 was the first skull of the musk-buffalo 
discovered. Birds were, until recently, supposed to 
belong exclusively to the tertiary; and very lately 
mammalia were supposed to descend only to the 
oolite. It is not the plan of nature to preserve the 



ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 41 

products of life. The activity of the forces of decay 
are brought in play before the cessation of life ; and 
the organism melts into the air, or is devoured by 
other beings. Not a particle is lost. Were it other- 
wise, the earth would soon become so encumbered 
with the rubbish that living forms could not flourish. 
The preservation of an inanimate organism withdraws, 
for the time, elements needed in the construction of 
other organisms; and were not these elements restored 
as well as withdrawn they would soon be tightly 
locked in worthless fossils, and the earth, the ocean, 
and the atmosphere, rendered incapable of supporting 
life. Thus are the forces of destruction made active ; 
and the tree, the bone, the tooth, the hardest as well 
as the softest parts, are soon absorbed. Their preser- 
vation is the exception where some peculiar circum- 
stances have, as it were, embalmed them. 

Now, when a thousand millions of men inhabit the 
earth, a number equal to w4iich die every thirty years, 
how few remains are. to be found ! The bones from 
Grecian and Roman times, — where are they ? Egypt 
has preserved a comparatively few in her mummies ; 
where are those left to the natural chances of preser- 
vation? The bones of the mound-builders, a recent 
people, are rarely so well preserved as to retain their 
form, but fall to dust on exposure to the air. Of the 
herds of bison and deer ; of carnivora, as bear, panther, 
wolves, foxes, which so recently inhabited the forests 
of this country ; with their Indian companions, all of 
which for countless generations left their bones in 
the forest soil, — where are their remains ? The tooth 
of time has gnawed them to dust; and they have 



42 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

ascended through plants to form again in the living 
systems of ox^ horse, and man. 

Only occasionally, during freshets, or by accidental 
causes, have rivers borne down on their turbid cur- 
rents the bloated carcasess of animals, and covered 
them in silt at their mouths. It is beneath the 
waters of lake, or ocean, or miry peat bogs, that *fos- 
sils are preserved; rarely or never on dry land, 
where they are so exposed that a few years suffices 
to destroy them. As since the advent of man there 
has not probably been any material difference in the 
relations of land and water, and it is beneath the 
water that organic remains are to be found, we should 
not be surprised that the geological record of early 
human history is so meagre. In those places w^here 
bones are preserved on land, as caves and peat-bogs, 
small as the chances are in favor of their fossilization, 
many interesting discoveries have been made by in- 
defatigable explorers. I shall allude first to those 
instances where fossil human remains have been 
found in th-e New World, as they invariably indicate 
a more recent origin than those of the Old. 

The skeleton found at New Orleans was sixteen 
feet below the surface, and lay directly beneath the 
roots of a cypress tree ; there being four fossil cypress 
forests above it. To arrive at an approximation to 
its age, we must study the formation in which it is 
found. The cypress grows in the low lands border- 
ing the Mississippi. It attains a great size and age. 
Humboldt supposes one growing in the. garden of 
Chapultepec as at least six thousand years old. If 
only one generation of trees were produced in each 



ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 43 

fossil forest which reposes above this skeleton, and 
the duration of each be taken as six thousand years, 
then twenty-four thousand years must have elapsed 
since its interment. But to this duration must be 
added the time of elevation and depression of each 
beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, a period 
for the computation of which we have no data. If 
we take the estimate of Lyell, of two and a half feet 
in a century, as the mean of elevation as observed in 
existing continental movements, and place the neces- 
sary elevation and depression of each forest at its 
minimum of fifteen feet, then the lapse of time be- 
tween each forest would be twelve hundred years, 

or thirty-six hundred years for the three intervals, or 

^^ — 

twenty-seven thousand six hundred years in all, to 
which must be added the duration of the last or pres- 
ent period. The discovery of the Natchez fossil 
human bone, of which much has been said, was not 
attended with sufficient accuracy of observation to 
give it any importance as evidence of man's antiquity. 
If, however, its claims be allowed, it is recent when 
compared to the human fossil remains of Denmark, or 
the gravel beds of the Somme. 

Dr. Lund has discovered in Brazil, in eight different 
caverns, human remains, all of which bore marks of 
contemporaneous deposition with the bones of forty- 
four species of extinct animals with which they were 
associated. 

In a cave on the borders of a lake named Lago 
Santa, he found human bones mingled with the bones 
of many extinct animals, moulded together, and con- 
solidated into a very hard breccia. Among the ex- 



44 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

tinct fossil animal remains were those of the ape 
and horse. It \^ould be an extremely interesting 
study to investigate the causes which extinguished 
the horse from this continent. The wild horse of 
South America is a descendant from Spanish stock, 
but thrives well from Patagonia to the Great Lakes ; 
and it is difScult to say why it perished. 

In South America/ near Lima, eighty-five feet above 
the sea, cotton thread, and plaited rush, and a head 
of Indian corn were found embedded with recent 
shells in limestone. At a contiguous point evidence 
was elicited, that, since the peopling of the country 
by the Peruvian race, at least this considerable eleva- 
tion has taken place. This affords no certain data on 
which a calculation can be based, as the coast often 
in a single day is 'elevated several feet, and then per- 
haps for centuries remains at rest. Taking the fore- 
going estimate of two and a half feet in a century^ 
eighty-five feet represent three thousand four hun- 
dred years as the lapse of time since the threads 
and plaited straw found a lodgment in the forming 
limestone. How long previously the Peruvian race 
occupied the table-lands of the Andes cannot be told. 

The moLmds of the Valley of the Ohio are of un- 
known age. They probably were the work of the 
sam.e race which had begun the incipient civilization 
in Mexico so ruthlessly destroyed by the Spaniards. 
For a savage people to migrate across this continent, 
— their traditions referred their origin to the north, 
and they were undoubtedly from Asia, — and to ad- 
vance to so high a degree of civilization, pre-supposes 
at least several thousand years. 



ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 45 

Probably to them, or to the later Indian race, is 
due the extinction of the mastodon of North, and 
the gigantic sloths known as the Margatherium, and 
Mylodon, of South America. The horse, so far from 
being used by them, was probably extirpated with 
those huge beings. We here have a key by which 
to account for the auomalous disappearance in recent 
times of those animals, the bones of which extend 
into the human period. 

It is, however, in the Old World that the records 
of vast and incomprehensible antiquity are met with. 

So early as 1823, a human skeleton was disinterred 
by.M. Ami Boue from ancient, undisturbed loess of 
the Rhine, at Lahr, nearly opposite Strasbnrg. This 
loess is the ancient alluvium thrown down by the 
turbid water of the rivers from the Alps. Previous to 
its denudation, a thickness of at least eighty feet ex- 
isted above the skeleton. Nearly half the bones were 
obtained. They did not lie as if part of a corpse 
that had been buried there. The fossils were pre- 
sented to Cuvier, who pronounced them at once to 
be human; but, pre-occupied by theological chro- 
nology, he referred them summarily to recent date. 

On excavating a canal from Maastricht to Hocht, 
in 1815-1823, in the loess, there twenty feet thick, 
extraordinary numbers of fossils of elephants of the ox 
tribe, horns of deer, and other mammalia were found. 
Mingled with these, at a depth of nineteen feet, where 
the loess reposes on the underlying gravel, in a stratum 
of sandy loam, overlaid by gravelly and sandy beds, 
a human jaw with teeth was found. The animal fos- 
sils were much more plentiful at the bottom of the 



46 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

loess, but were partially diffused to the surface. This 
statement of Prof. Crabay is indorsed by Lyell,' who, 
after visiting the locality, '^ could see no reason for 
supposing the human jaw to belong to a different 
geological period from that of the extinct elephant." 

The geological evidence of the vast antiquity of 
man furnished by the Valley of the Somme is, per- 
haps, among the most conclusive. In the thick stra- 
tum of alluvial gravel bordering the river, flint im- 
plements have been found at several places, and in 
great numbers at Abbeville, Amiens, and St. Achuel. 
They are arrow and spear heads, knives and hatchets, 
some of which have their edges broken, as though 
used before they were lost. They are embedded from 
ten to twenty feet in the solid, undisturbed gravel, 
and are associated with bones of the elepha>s primi- 
genius, rhinoceros, horse, deer, hyena, felis spelala, 
&c., which inhabited Europe at that period. The dis- 
appearance of these huge quadrupeds may be as 
much referable to the agency of man as of climate. 

Similar flint instruments have been discovered in 
the alluvial gravel of the Seine, in the environ^ of 
PariSy twenty feet below the surface, accompanied by 
like organic remains, as well as in the Valley of the 
Oise. 

In England, they have been found in several places 
in the Valley of the Thames ; at Bedford in the Valley 
of the Ouse, in gravel ; at Hoxen in Suffolk ; at Ick- 
lingham, in w^hich localities they occur from ten to 
twenty feet below the surface. 

The discovery of human bones in caverns, the 
most probable place for their occurrence, is very sig- 



ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 47 

nificant. It is the locality above all others where we 
should expect to find the remains of a savage people. 
Caves are the natural shelter for savage man. There 
he has left a dim hieroglyph of his existence. Some- 
times, perhaps, he expelled the bear and hyena from 
their dens, or in turn was expelled, or fell a victim to 
their rapacity, leaving naught but the gnawed frag- 
ments of his bones to tell of his existence. 

The idea of determining the age of fossils by the 
amount of animal matterwhich they contain is incorrect, 
for, after a time, — and it is of no great comparative 
duration, — all bones arrive at the same condition by the 
loss of their organic atoms. There is no situation, in 
which fossils are found, which can more than tempo- 
rarily retard this destruction. 

The Cave of Durfurt, in the Jura, is situated in a 
calcareous mountain, and is entered by a shaft twenty 
feet deep. Here were found the bones of the rhinoce- 
ros, bear, hyena, and numerous other extinct animals, 
and, mingled with them, human bones and pottery. 
They were embedded in mud and fragments of lime- 
stone, in some places to the depth of thirty feet. 

There are a great many caves in France that have 
yielded bones. They have been ably described by 
Dr. Schmerling. In the Cave of Engihoul the human 
bones were mixed with those of extinct animals, and 
were like them in all respects. Near them were found 
fragments of ancient urns, and vases of clay, teeth 
of dogs and foxes, pierced with holes to serve the 
purpose of beads. 

In all these caves, as well as those of Belgium, 
situated as they are in the deepest and most inacces- 



48 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

sible localities, buried beneath thick deposits of stalag- 
mite and mnd, human bones have been found mingled 
with those of the extinct elephant and rhinoceros. 

They are often found mixed, in a fragmentary 
breccia, with the bones of these animals, in all in- 
stances having precisely the same appearance as the 
bones with which they are associated. 

The Cave of Sailenreuth, in Franconia, is three' 
hundred feet above the river; those of Zahnlock and 
Kiihlock are similarly located, and the cave of Cop- 
pingen in the Suabian Alps is two thousand five 
hundred feet above the sea: those of Kustritz in 
Upper Saxony are also very elevated. These instances 
are interesting, because in all of these human bones 
occur mixed with those of the usual extinct animals, 
sometimes covered with a drift deposit twenty feet in 
thickness. In some of these caves the human bones 
were found eight feet below those of the rhinoceros, 
and in such quantities as to represent man from in- 
fancy to maturity. 

In the Cave of Grower, South Wales, a fact has 
been brought to light, which is of a most conclusive 
character. In the same undisturbed deposit which 
covers the floor of the cavern, the remains of two 
species of rhinoceros, and two flint knives were found. 
Since the occupation of the cavern, the land has 
subsided beneath the sea ; and a deposit of sand has 
taken place over its floor. How vast the interval 
required to depress the land beneath the sea, allow a 
long period for the deposition of sand, and its equally 
slow elevation ! 

There are many ossiferous caves in North Sicily, 



ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 49 

in which human remains occur with those of extinct 
animals. The northern coast of that island presents 
rocks containing recent'species of shells, with broken 
pottery, elevated to the height of three hundred feet. 
If we allow one hundred feet for the depth of water 
in which the shells flourished before elevation began, 
then, at the rate of two and a half feet in a century, 
four hundred feet of elevation would give 16,000 
years as the age of the pottery. But a much greater 
period must be stated ; for no allowance is here made 
for the time after the deposit of the pottery, before 
the elevation began. 

Herodotus speaks of a small Thracian tribe, that 
dwelt in the midst of a mountain lake of Poeonia, 
building their dwellings on piles driven into the bot- 
tom of the lake, and connected to the shore by narrow 
causeways. 

That was B.C. 520 years. 

In 1853-1854, in reclaiming a part of the Lake of 
Zurich, piles were discovered, belonging to just such 
an ancient village. In dredging, abundant evidence 
of fishing gear was discovered, as pieces of cord, 
hooks, stone weights, and canoes, one of which, 
made out of the trunk of a tree, was fifty feet long. 
Since the direction of attention to this important 
subject, piles, fragments, and implements have been 
found in almost every lake in Switzerland. Some of 
these villages belong to the age of bronze, some to 
the age of stone. 

The sites first studied were on the Lake of Moos- 
seldorf, near Berne. All the instruments found were 
of stone or bone : the flint employed came from the 

4 



50 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

» 

South of FrancGj but, from the chippings found, must 
have been worked up on the spot. The other imple- 
ments were of jade, — of a kind not found in Europe, 
and which is supposed to come from the East, — and 
amber which probably came from the Baltic ; facts 
which show that these savage tribes carried on a 
widely extended commerce. The Indian tribes of 
America had arrived at quite as extensive exchanges, 
the nations on the Atlantic trading as far west as the 
great lakes of Erie and Huron, and probably the 
Mississippi. 

In the Lake of Constance, at the site of another lake 
dwelling, arrow-heads of quartz; hatchets of green 
stone and serpentine ; a kind of plated cloth ; lumps 
of carbonized wheat and barley; flat cakes of bread; 
carbonized apples and pears, such as grow now in the 
Swiss forests ; bones of the ox, sheep, and goat, — have 
been discovered. 

Near Merges, on the Lake of Geneva, is the site of 
a village of the bronze period. No less than forty 
bronze hatchets have been there dredged up in a 
wonderful state of preservation. 

The presence of the cultivated cereals, as well as 
the near approach to the present type of the country 
made by the solitary skull discovered, renders the 
remote antiquity of these lake-dwellings uncertain. 
They undoubtedly are of great age, but modern 
compared to the flints of the Danish peat. 

Numerous examples of artificial islands have been 
discovered in Ireland ; but they have been too uncriti- 
cally examined : all that is known of them points to 



ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 51 

the remotest antiquity. They belong to the stone 
age. 

These primitive people dwelt south as well as north 
of the Alps after the retreat of the great glaciers; for, 
in Northern Italian lakes, their remains have been re- 
cently discovered. Considering that scarcely ten 
years have elapsed since attention was first called to 
this subject, a wonderful mass of facts bearing on the 
age of man have been recorded ; but there is a wide 
field yet unexplored, in which a rich harvest is cer- 
tain. 

The untiring labors of a few zealous Danish geolo- 
gists have yielded a strong mass of evidence. They 
have had good material, and have used it well. No- 
where has the remoteness of man^s creation been so 
forcibly shown as in the analysis of their- peat-bogs 
and shell-mounds. At the bottom of the peat, numer- 
ous flint and stone instruments occur. Substantially 
above them, embedded in the peat, is a forest of 
Scotch fir. This tree has not flourished in Denmark 
in historic times. ^ After the fir had exhausted the 
soil, it was succeeded by the sessile oak. This was 
followed by the pedunculated oak; and, after these 
forests, came the present beech. Forest trees attain a 
great age, and it is probable that each of these forests 
was formed of several generations of trees. 

In the time of the Romans, Scandinavia was re- 
markable for its splendid beech forests; and they still 
continue to thrive with undiminished vigor. Six 
thousand years would be the least period which could 
be assigned for the duration of the present forest ; and 



52 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

hence four forests would equal 24,000 years as the 
age of the flint instruments. 

From careful investigation, the Scandinavian anti- 
quarians decided that the remains they discovered 
should be classified in three epochs : that of stone, the 
oldest and most savage ; of bronze, when man had 
learned the use of that alloy ; and of iron, which is 
the historic. This classification is at once simple and 
truthful, and applicable to all remains, in whatever 
part of the world they are found. 

The peat of Denmark is no more remarkable than the 
immense mounds of shells often met with. Similar 
ones are to be seen on the Atlantic coast of New 
England, where the Indians have dwelt for ages, 
throwing the refuse of their meals together. 

These shells belong to living species; but they prove, 
that, since they were gathered, the geography of the 
earth has changed. Thus the oyster, periwinkle, and 
cockle are full sized : but now the Baltic is too fresh 
for them to flourish, except at its entrance ; and, in 
consequence, they are of diminutive size. Mingled 
with the shells are fragments of thejbones of the wild 
bull (aurock), the roe, deer, lynx, fox, wolf, and dog. 
The dog is the only domesticated animal the remains 
of which have been found. It was of small size in 
the stone age, but larger in the bronze. It became 
very large in the iron .epoch. 

The remains of man, of course, would not be found 
in the refuse heaps, unless these early people were can- 
nibals: but the instruments he used in the chase are 
common, as flint axes, and arrow-heads. In mounds 
of contemporary date, where the careful hand of af 



ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 53 

fection consigned them, human skulls have been 
discovered. These skulls are small and round, with 
a prominent ridge over the orbits of the eyes, — a 
mark of inferiority, and extremely large in the chim- 
panzee. This ancient race were of small stature, and 
resembled the Lapps. 

Skulls of the age of bronze are elongated and 
larger. These mounds correspond to the older por- 
tion of the peat, the canoes found in which show that 
these little men ventured on the water ; and the re- 
mains of bones of deep-sea fish in the shell-heaps show 
that he was not an unskilled mariner. 

By careful comparison of the bones of the various 
ages, venison appears to have been the principal food 
of the hunter, or stone age ; and the flesh of the ox and 
sheep, that of the bronze, at which latter period the 
tame pig displaces the wild boar. At the beginning 
of the age of stone, the goats were the more nume- 
rous ; at its close, the sheep. The bronze age had two 
races of cattle, and two of pigs, a horse of medium 
size, and a small dog. The fox, at first very numerous 
and serving for food, was at length displaced by the 
dog. Have we not here a clew to the origin of the 
dog, the progenitor of which, as is well known, is un- 
discoverable among living species ? 

In a section laid open at Sodertilge, at a depth of 
sixty feet, beneath marine strata, the timbers of a 
wooden hut, with its circle of hearth-stones, and much 
charcoal, were discovered. In the same strata occur 
the remains of vessels constructed with wooden pegs. 

The strata in Avhich they were found contain the 
characteristic shells of the brackish waters of the 



54 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 

Bothnian Gulf. As the saltness of tlie Bothnian Gulf 
and Baltic depend on the same causes, and as this 
deposit represents only brackish water, while the 
03^ster and cockle shells of the shell-mounds of Den- 
mark represent water as salt as the ocean, the latter 
must belong to a period previous to the strata in 
which the vessels and huts occur. 

The time required to sink the land sixty feet, and 
then slowly elevate it to that height, would suffice to 
bring us close to that period when Scandinavia was a 
vast gla€ier, sending off its erratic blocks far over the 
site of England. Perhaps b}^ a simple computation 
we can arrive at an approximation. Scandinavia is 
undergoing a slight elevation : the process is a contin- 
uation of that which has elevated the strata containing 
the human relics, and converted a large portion of the 
bed of the Baltic and North Sea into dry land. The 
area of elevation extends over one thousand miles north 
and south, and the degree of elevation amounts to five 
feet in a century at the North Cape, where it attains its 
maximum, and gradually grows less towards the south, 
until it reaches zero. It is eight hundred miles from 
the North Cape to the point where the remains oc- 
cur ; and, consequently, the mean elevation at that 
point is one foot in a century; so that to produce an 
elevation of sixty feet would require sixty centuries. 
But the water must have had some depth when the 
boats sank, and were enclosed in the ooze. If we 
assume this at twenty feet, we must add twenty cen- 
turies to the above. But this period is only that of 
depression : that of elevation was equally long, so that 
for the whole time we have 16,000 years. 



ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 55 

This lapse of time is insignificant, if we accept 
the calculations of M. Boucher de Perthes from data 
derived from the observed growth of peat. At the 
bottom of the entire stratum of peat in the Valley of 
the Somme, thirty feet in thickness, flint tools have 
been found. Taking the growth of peat at three cen- 
timetres, or three-tenths of an inch, it^ would re- 
quire for the growth of that peat stratum one hun- 
dred and twenty thousand years. More : carrying 
the antiquity of man still farther into the realms of 
paleontology, this peat rests on and overlies the drift 
gravel-beds in which flint tools have been described 
as being found in the Valley of the Somme t Their age, 
computed from the thickness of gravel in which they 
occur, is a vast period ; but, when added to that of the 
overlying peat, it becomes wholly incomprehensible. 

On the opposite shore of Sweden, deposits of the 
same age as those of Sordertilge attain an elevation 
of even seven hunded feet. The shells found in them 
are' not of the same species as those found in the neigh- 
boring sea, but like those several degrees farther 
north. The climate of Scandinavia was decidedly 
more arctic then than now. Lyell, by assuming an 
average elevation of two and half feet in a century, 
estimates that the present elevation of the coast of 
Sweden required twenty-seven thousand five hundred 
years, and this without making allowance for pauses 
of indefinite duration, which always occur during long- 
continued elevations or depressions. As the distance 
from the point of greatest elevation is about the same 
as Sodertilge, one foot in a century would be a 



56 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

mean elevation probably nearer the truth, and yields 
seventy thousand years as the result. 

Vessels have been found in England, buried in the 
now-deserted channel of the Rother in Sussex, of the 
Mersey, and the Thames. 

In almost all parts of the kingdom, canoes and stone 
hatchets have been found at considerable depths be- 
neath the surface. 

In America, flint arrows and stone hatchets are often 
turned up by the plough ; but they are invariably met 
with at the surface. There has not yet transpired a 
single instance where they have been so deeply buried 
as to yield to calculations, results like those of the 
old world. 

Ancient as are the Pyramids, they rest on a deposit 
yielding evidence of an almost fathomless antiquity. 
From the stupenduous researches of Hekekyan Bey, 
made by a series of shafts and artesian borings across 
the Valley of the Nile, we learn, that when the depth 
of sixty feet, or the level of the Mediterranean, was 
reached, fragments of pottery were brought up ; and, 
in a boring by Linaut Bey, .fragments of red brick 
were brought from a depth of seventy-two feet. M. 
Rosiere, in his great work on Egypt, from personal 
observation, estimates that the deposit made by the 
overflow of the Nile, which has buried these works 
of art to their present depth, averages two inches 
and eighty-eight thousandths in a century. Twenty- 
two feet would consequently represent forty-one thou- 
sand three hundred years ; but the auger brought up 
fragments from the lowest point reached, and thou- 



ANTIQUITY OF MAN.. 57 

sands of centuries may be represented in the un- 
known depth of deposits below. 

Fossil remains of the dog have been discovered in 
many places, and the discovery merits more attention 
than has been bestowed upon it; for the dog has not 
only been the companion of man, but is a creature 
formed by his selection and culture from widely dif- 
fel-ent sources. Hence the discovery of its fossils in 
a given era is almost equivalent to finding the bones 
of man himself in that era. The antiquity of the 
faithful instincts of the dog is touchjngly shown in a 
cave of the Canary Islands, where the skeleton of a 
Guanches is accompanied by that of a gigantic dog, 
lying as if watching the slumbers of his master. 

The similarity of the skeleton of the dog and wolf 
has undoubtedly led to pronouncing many fossils as of 
the wolf which belonged to the dog. 

Bones of the dog have been found in the caves of 
Lagoa-Santo in Brazil. They belonged to a variety 
larger than now living. They were mingled with 
bones of the huge extinct mammalia of that country, 
like that found at the foot of the Pyrenees in a 
sti-atum of marl, surmounted by compact limestone : it 
was also associated with the fossil bones of a monkey. 
This is the more notable, as fossil monkeys are more 
rare than fossil man. The latter was associated with 
the rhinoceros, anoplotherium, deer, and antelope. 

Several fossils of the dog have been described by 
Dr. Schmerling. They differ essentially from the 
wolf or fox, and belong to two well-marked varieties. 
They were found in a cavern deposit, mingled with 
bones of bears, hyenas, and other extinct animals. 



58 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

Of the fossil bones of the genus Canis, found in 
the Cave of Gailenreuth, Cuvier remarked, that they 
resembled those of the dog much more than those 
of the wolf. They were mingled in the same deposit 
with bones of the hyena, tiger, &g,, and had the same 
appearance and consistence, and were evidently of 
the same age. 

A fossil dog resembling the bull-dog occurs in the 
bone-caverns of England. 

The fossils of four types of the dog have been dis- 
covered; the immense Canary, pointer, hound, and 
bull-dog. A smaller variety resembling the turnspit, 
and that discovered by Mantel in New Zealand, asso- 
ciated with the bones of the dinornisj are yet unde- 
termined. 

When the pointer set for game, and the hound 
bayed in the woods of Europe ; when the bull-dog 
growled at the caverns mouth, and the canary watched 
in its cave, — can we doubt that man was with them, 
on whom their very existence depends ? 

A more startling fact remains for statement, one 
which has received the sanction of that cautious ob- 
server, Lyell. In 1852, a grotto was discovered in the 
face of a cleft forty-five feet high. The entrance was 
concealed by rubbish ; but on systematic exploration, 
made by M. Lartet, in 1860, beside the seventeen skele- 
tons at first removed, he made other and most wonderful 
discoveries. It appears thaj; the grotto was the burial- 
place of an ancient people. After clearing the rubbish 
away, a slab of stone shut the entrance. In front of 
this door was a layer seven inches in thickness of 
ashes and cinders, remains of fires where the friends 



ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 69 

cooked and ate the funeral feast; the remnants of 
which, the charred and gnawed bones, were plentifully 
scattered through the ashes. These bones belonged 
to the cave-bear, cave-hyena, fox, brown bear, badger, 
polecat, cave-lion, wild-cat, horse, stag, gigantic Irish 
roebuck, and aurochs. None of the denizens of their 
forest came amiss to the voracious appetite of these 
early people. The larger bones were invariably split 
for extraction of the marrow, and many of them /are 
more or less burned. The softer and spongy parts 
were gnawed by hyenas, or other animals, which 
prowled about the place after the departure of the 
mourners. 

There were a great variety of .flint articles, knives, 
projectiles, sling-stones, chips, and the flint stone 
from which they were broken, with the round^ stone 
used in breaking them out, and bone arrows. Some 
of the bones were steakecl by the flint knives used to 
scrape off the flesh. No human bones occurred out- 
side of the stone door. 

They were not cannibals. Inside were as many as 
seventeen skeletons. They belonged to a race of 
small stature. A flint knife, a few teeth of the cave- 
lion, tusks of the wild boar, and a tooth of the cave- 
bear carved into a resemblance of the head of a bird, 
and the bones of the cave-bear, accompanied the skele- 
tons. They were probably amulets, or tokens of the 
chase. The bears appear to have been placed in 
the cave entire, undoubtedly to serve as food for the 
departed on their journey to the land of spirits. 

In the gravel-pits of the Somme, the Thames, the 
Oise, in the peat and shell-mounds of Denmark, we 



60 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

meet the remains of art, associated with the ex- 
tinct rhinoceros, mammoth, and elephant, showing 
that, when Europe was a warmer climate than now, 
and was peopled by the cave-bear, lion, tiger, rhinoce- 
ros, &c., man had already reached a rude state of 
civilization. Here in this grotto, at the foot of 
the Pyrenees, we find him occupying the position 
of a conqueror. Judging from the works of art, 
the remains in this cave are of equal antiquity with 
the flint arrows and hatchets of the Somme, or the 
shell-mounds of Denmark. Eough calculation fixes 
their age at several score thousands of years ; yet 
we find him in a comparatively high estate. He is 
acknowledged lord of the animal world; the huge 
cave-bear falls by his arrow ; the unwieldy mammoth 
is sacrificed; the fleetness of the enormous Irish 
elk does not save it, nor the fierceness of the cave 
tiger or lion. He provides a sepulchre for the body 
of the dead ; the tribe gathers, and places the corpse 
of their friend in fhe prepared grotto; they place 
by its side the carcass of a bear to sustain the spirit 
on its long journey, and a flint arrow with which to 
pursue the cave-lion in that far clime. Then they 
prepare the flesh of mammoth, or other denizen of 
the wild, by the funeral fire ; partake of the feast : 
the door is replaced, and the friends depart. Won- 
derful fact ! we find the belief in immortal existence 
buried among the wrecks of animate forms fossilized 
in stone. It has survived the gigantic beings of the 
world of its birth. Mammoths have perished; the 
cave-bear, lion, and tiger are no more ; the rhinoceros, 
diminutive in size, has withdrawn to Asia and Africa ; 



ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 61 

the entire fenna and flora of Europe have undergone 
two great fluctuations; yet the behef in immortal 
existence after death has grown brighter and clearer, 
and draws, as to a centre, more and more the activity 
of mankind. 

Were the evidences adduced applicable to any 
other fossil, they would be considered as incontro- 
vertibly fixing its situation in the drift. 

It will be seen that all calculations on the period 
of man^s advent, in years or thousands of years, neces- 
sarily are but rough approximations. Science can 
here deal only with the order of events. All that 
geology contends for is the removal of his advent 
from historic times to the first age of the past, — - the 
drift. If his birth dates in that age, there is no diffi- 
culty in accounting for the great varieties of race, 
and his dispersal over the whole earth ; for the con- 
tinental masses were not then related to each other 
as at present. The Atlantic Ocean was then in a 
great measure continental, or had large islands stud- 
ding its expanse. The weald of England indicates 
an indefinite stretch of land to the west or south-west^ 
it being the estuary and delta of a large river flowing 
from that direction. There are reasons for supposing 
that this tract did not subside, and the Atlantic take 
its present form, until a recent geological date ; and 
that the Old and New Worlds were in communication 
across the present site of the Atlantic by means of 
projecting continental masses. Asia, on the other 
side, approaches so near, that there is a free inter- 
communication between the Esquimaux tribes, across 
Behring's Straits. 



62 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

The facts furnished by geology extend the advent 
of man so far into the night of time, that the Pyramids, 
and ruins of ancient cities, even the rude stone col- 
umns of Stone-Henge, are of yesterday. All of these 
Siiow a highly civilized state. In their day, man was 
acquainted v^ith the metals, the principles of refined 
architecture, the art of writing, the measurement of 
tim_e, and had acquired the social amenities of refined 
nationality ; but what shall we say of man of the 
drift? A rude and colossal World spread around 
him ; in the midst of a dense wilderness inhabited by 
savage and colossal beasts, we first find him, armed 
only with a flint arrow. How long he had existed 
previously, we as yet cannot tell; but he had advanced 
from a ruder estate by a process slow and painful. 
Progress is in a geometrical ratio. The more enlight- 
ened a nation is, the greater will be the rapidity of 
progress. Savage tribes remain from age to age 
apparently without change. The study of his prog- 
ress from tire age of stone to that of bronze, illus- 
trates the slowness of his advance. Bronze presup- 
poses the knowledge of two metals, copper and tin. 
The first exists often in a pure or native state ; 
the latter is not only rare, but its extraction from 
its pre requires a considerable knowledge of chemis- 
try. The proportion of each required to produce the 
hardest bronze might be learned by experiment. 
After all this knowledge had been acquired, the 
instruments made from it were cast after the fashion 
of those of stone. The bronze hatchet was fashioned 
just like the stone. It is considerably higher up in 
the strata in which they occur, corresponding to a 



ANTIQmTY OF MAN. 63 

long elapse of time, before the savage learns that he 
can, with the more plastic material, improve the form 
of his hatchet and arrow-head by departing from the 
form of those of stone. 

From the age of stone he passes to that of bronze. 
Hq at first has no domestic animals ; but we see how, 
in the preceding pages, he acquired the dog, sheep, 
ox, pig, and goat. These acquisitions were not made 
in a few centuries. The American Indian has in- 
habited this continent from immemorial time ; yet the 
only domestic ammal he has acquired is the dog, — 
a kind of mongrel wolf. How long before he would 
have tamed the bison or the deer? The ancient 
man of Europe had the aurochs, as wild and fierce as 
the bison, to subdue, and the wild, goat-like mountain 
sheep, as fleet as the deer, to domesticate. He had 
learned to manage the horse, and wrought a great 
departure in the pig from its parent, the savage wild 
boar. All this he had done while he still possessed 
only a bronze hatchet and arrow. But even with 
these he had extirpated the mammoth and elephas 
'primigeniiis, and by the power of intellect taken the 
commanding position he h^s since held over the ani- 
mal world. All of this vast duration lies far below 
the seventy-two feet of Nile deposit, which, as we 
have said, represents twelve hundred centuries; and 
this underlies the base of the hoary Pyramids, which 
of themselves are scarcely of historic time, reaching 
back, according to Lepsius' calculations, to within one 
hundred and twelve years of the creation, according 
to received chronology. 

Perhaps these immense periods already bewilder the 



64 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF J^IAN. 

understanding; but we must add, that below all these 
combined periods of savage life, of twelve hundred 
centuries of Nile deposit and the Pyramids, lies a 
stretch of ages during which man existed, adown 
which we gaze into night with our senses perfectly 
appalled. Vv^e have stated that human remains hav^ 
been discovered in the Alps twenty-five hundred feet 
above the sea, and covered with a deposit of drift. 
The arrow-heads described also belong to the drift. 
All facts prove that man inhabited the earth during 
that period* When it covered Europe with ice and 
snow, man could not have been introduced : he must 
have previously inhabited that country, as every cir- 
cumstance would debar his approach to its inhospita- 
ble shores while it continued ; hence man must have 
first appeared in the later tertiary, and already be- 
come established before the drift began. We thus 
place the entire drift, or pleistocene period, between 
the present and the origin of man. The continuance 
of that period cannot be measured by years ; but an 
idea can be obtained by comparing it with other 
periods. After careful inspection of the weald of 
England, Darwin estimates the time required to effect 
its observed degradation at 306,662,400 years. The 
degradation effected by the drift was equally great 
as that of the weald. There was time enough to 
cover the northern hemisphere to the 38° latitude, 
and in many places lower, with an icy sea covered 
with icebergs, and to wrap the land in vast glaciers, 
and to allow the degradation thus begun to continue 
until not an exposed rock or mountain-peak should 
bear witness of its action. The interval since Niagara 



ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 65 

began to cut its channel from Ontario, or since the 
Mississippi flowed in its present channel, are but cen- 
turies in this time. Lyell estimates the age of the 
delta of the Mississippi at 100,000 years ; but he 
makes little allowance for the fine sediment which is 
more than one-half of that brought down by the river, 
and on which his calculations are based. This would 
certainly double the interval. To this must be added 
the age of the bluffs, also of fluviatile deposit, in 
many places two hundred and fifty to three hundred 
feet in height, and^ probably twice the antiquity of 
the present delta, or 400,000 years in all. We can 
thus go on making estimates, all reaching into in- 
comprehensible past time ; but we cannot do more 
than thus approximate by the mihion or the hundred 
million, and must, as yet, content ourselves with the 
order of events. 



CHAPTER 11. 

RELATIONS OFMAN TO THE AN- 
THROPOID APES. 

The Climate of the Tertiary Warm. — Whence came the Savage of the 
Plint Arrow-head? — Primates, no Break or Chasm between them and 
^Man. — Fossil Primates, Dryopitliecus, of the Swiss Jura, Eocene. — Lin- 
naean Classification of Primates. — Embryonic Form of the Primates. 
— Anthropoid, or Man-like Apes. — First Account of the Pongo. — 
Anatomical Structure. — The Gibbons. — Orang-Outang. — Chim- 
panzee. — Gorilla. — The Point of Man's Contact with the Animal 
World, the Quadrumania. — Comparison of Structure of the Hand, Foot, 
Vertebral Column, Pelvis, Skull, and Teeth. — Brain, Convolutions of. — 
Correspondence of Fossil Human Remains^ the Engis Skull, the Nean- 
derthall Skull. — Conclusions. 

Thus far our investigations have been in the sepul- 
cral land of paleontology, where, in mansoleurQS hewn 
by the sea, the wreck of human beings and of the ani- 
mal creation are entombed. Before the icy drift 
ocean laved the northern continents, wrapped in an 
almost perpetual and universal coat of ice thousands 
of feet in thickness, there existed, as has been pre- 
viously shown, a warm climate. This is not only 
proved by the bones of elephants and mastodons, — 
they may have inhabited a comparitively cold climate, 
— but the contemporaneous presence of the rhinoceros 
and hippopotamus, the tiger, lion, and hyena, speak 
of a genial clime extending over Northern Europe and 
Asia. 



HIS RET^TIONS TO THE ANTHROPOID APES. 67 

It is in this period that we obtain the first traces 
of man. It is a flint arrow-head, a stone axe, so rudely 
shaped that we pause before we pronounce them 
works of art, and throughout this immense elapse of 
time we only obtain such traces of the rudest exist- 
ence. 

From whence came this savage whom we find even 
in traditional ages, naked or skin-clad, wandering 
through the gloomy forests of Europe, often feasting 
on the bodies of his fallen enemies ? 

We descend step by step ; we pass into the drift, 
finding there the lowest savage man; leaving whom, 
and descending into the true tertiar)^, we meet with 
fossil primates, the highest group of animals. Pew 
fossils of the latter have been discovered ; but, when 
hundreds have been exhumed and placed side by side 
in an ascending line, there cannot be the least doubt, 
that, between the highest 2^Timate and the lowest sav- 
age, there will be no break, no chasm, but a perfect 
and complete series. 

To hazard conjectui^ in the present state of science 
is perhaps immature ; but there are certain great 
deductions which may be drawn from received facts^ 
which appear to converge to one irrefragable conclu- 
sion. Many scientific writers boldly put forward the 
views, based entirely on negative evidence, that, 
by the absence of fossil primates, man is completely 
cut off from the animal world by an impassable chasm. 
The preposterous assumption of such criticism will 
become apparent when we consider that scarcely a 
single living specimen of the ourang or gorilla has 
been procured. Very little is known by naturalists 



68 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. . 

of the higher primates^ and still less of their fossil 
remains. The dense and inaccessible forests of Bor- 
neo and Sumatra, Loango and the Gaboon, conceal 
the orangs, troglodytes niger, and gorilla. The geo- 
logical provinces of the present correspond in a great 
measure to those of the tertiary, and hence it is ex- 
actly in those inaccessible countries that such fossils 
must exist. It is by mines and works of engineering 
that fossils are principally brought to light. Nothing 
of this kind has broken the soil of those countries. 
Even to the northv/ard, the only direction they could 
extend, the country is almost unknown. While un- 
doubtedly many living species remain undescribed, 
how puerile to found an objection on the absence of 
fossils ! 

The most notable fossils yet discovered of primates 
is that of the Dryopithecus of Lartet, found in the 
Upper Miocene of Sanson, near the foot of the Pyre- 
nees, in the south of France. It w^as a long-armed 
ape or gibbon, about equal to man in stature. 

M. Rlitsmeyer has discovered, in the eocene of the 
Swiss Jura, remains of a 'monkey allied to the lemurs. 
Europe, the only country where a partial search even 
can be made, was, according to the high authority of 
Lyell, too cold during the pliocene, or latter tertiary, 
for monkeys. 

It is not my purpose to array the brute in compari- 
son with man ; to sink his noble and immortal qualities 
to the level of the beast. If we admit the unity of 
type in the animal world, and ignore any other crea- 
tion than that of law, how can we escape from basing 



HIS RELATIONS TO THE ANTHROPOID APES. 69 

the origin of man on the highest members of the 
animal world ? 

The facts on this subject are scanty; but so vital is 
the importance of the theory to which they refer, that 
I shall devote a considerable space to their presenta- 
tion. It has been said, and is constantly repeated, 
that a break, a chasm, an impassable gnlf, exists be- 
tween even the lowest man and the highest animal, — a 
gulf nothing but a miraculous creation by God can 
bridge. Philosophers may reason on either side, — 
the animal side, or the human ; but at this gulf they 
must pause, and, if conscientious, be brought to a 
realizing sense of divine interposition, and the help- 
lessness of philosophy. 

Now, it is evident that the conclusions drawn from 
the animal realm agree with those drawn from the 
domain of man : over the gulf, only an arch is wanting 
to complete the chain of a perfect system of nature. 
The arch I am endeavoring to build may be imperfect ; 
but I am confident, rude as it necesssarily must be in 
the present state of our knowledge, that it may serve 
as a bridge until material is gathered lor a better. 

The facts I have gathered I have severely sifted, 
and their statements as severely condensed, reserving- 
only the essential particulars which bear directly for 
or against t!ie present theory of the derivation of man. 

I do not deny the existence of a chasm. I under- 
stand that in the gorilla there is not a single bone, 
muscle, or fibre, but diflers so much from the corre- 
sponding part in man, that it can be readily determined. 
But man does not difier more from them than they 
differ from each other ; a fact brought out boldly in the 



70 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

classification of that master mind , Linnaeus. He called 
the order embracing man, apes, and lemurs, primates. 
Tliis he divided into seven families : the Anthropi- 
Ni, containing the various races of men ; the Catar- 
RHixi, the Old-World apes ; the Platyrhini, the New- 
World apes, except the Marmosets; Lemurini, the 
lemurs ; the Cheiromyini ; and the Galcepithicus, the 
flying lemur. 

Since his day, man has been set apart in an order 
by himself; but, by painful research, he is again 
replaced where the sagacity of the great naturalist 
assigned him. 

I do not desire to make the chasm appear less than 
it is. It is such a one as exists between all genera, 
when viewed across the lines of their advemce. It is 
to fossil anthropoids we must look for a perfect series, 
as they, not the living, are the true progenitors of 
man. All we claim is, that as we take Greek, Latin, 
German, and go to Sanskrit, not for their origin, but, 
because it is an older branch, we can trace their com- 
mon origin to a parent from which allare derived ; so 
we go to the anthropoids, as to an older branch, to 
learn of the common parentage of alL 

Here an explanation may be inserted, else the go- 
rilla may be considered as a link in the chain of beings, 
which it is not. The progenitors of both gorilla and 
man are entombed in the earth. They are divergent 
lines of advance from such progenitors ; as we say 
that the German and the Hindoo sprang from an early 
race in Central Asia, not one from the other, and each 
has advanced after its own manner. It is on this ac- 
count that analogies are between the lovrost types of 



HIS RELATIONS TO THE ANTHROPOID APES. 71 

orders, and not the highest of one and lowest of the 
next. If we compare, it must be directly across the 
lines of advance. It is interesting to learn that in 
its fetal state the embryo partakes of the form of its 
ancestor more closely than in its adult. Fetal growth 
depends on hereditary descent ; and, before the influ- 
ence of conditions is exerted on its plastic form, it 
copies its earliest ancestors. The young lobster is 
almost a perfect tribolite, a crustacean which lived in 
the earlier geological ages ; the young salmon is a 
sauroid, a very early form. In the young dog or cat 
or colt, the distinctions of variety are ignored, the 
young of all varieties of dog closely resembling^ each 
other ; and so of cats and horses, sheep, &c. In like 
manner, the young chimpanzee or goriUa more closely 
resembles man, and closer still the infant than when 
matured ; and the young of the monkey tribe anticipate 
remotely and approach to a typical form. In the 
young gorilla, on the principle that it copies its an- 
cestral form, we see a picture of that early being 
from which sprang the human line of advance. If 
future discoveries confirm this inference by bringing 
to light fossils of as high grade as the young chim- 
panzee or gorilla, I know not where this reasoning 
can be broken. 

The first notice of the man-like apes was given in 
1598 by Pigafetta, in ^^Description of the Kingdom 
of Congo,'' but was so overcharged with fiction that 
it only creates a smile. In a quaint book published 
in 1613, entitled ^^ Purchas his Pilgrimage,'' the apes 
are introduced with great relish; but the accounts are 
extravagantly fabulous. In both works, and, in short, 



72 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN, 

in all the writings which relate to this subject, up to 
the beginning of the present century, the fabulous 
largely predominates. The abominable caricatures 
which ornamented their pages are enough to bring 
contempt on their descriptions. It was not until very 
recently that accurate portraits or descriptions were 
obtained. The works of these old authors have noth- 
ing worthy of introducing in a present work. Their 
perusal is exhilarating from the wonder which their 
subject seems to excite, a wonder reaching perfect 
credulity, receiving every thing ; and the more unrea- 
sonable, the better are they pleased. 

Linn^us never saw an anthromorphus ape, and his 
illustrations are childish caricatures. Buffon had the 
opportunity of examining a young chimpanzee, and 
an adult gibbon, the first and the last living specimen 
of that species brought to Europe in many years 
thereafter. 

In his great work in 1766 on natural history, he 
gave the first correct description of the orang, pongo, 
and jocko ; but, as all these animals then brought to 
Europe were immature, he supposed that they all be- 
longed to one species, or the great orang. Twenty 
j^ears afterwards he modified his opinion so as to make 
two species, a large and a small. 

Cuvier classed the pongo as a baboon in his "Regne 
AnimaV but in the second edition of that work con- 
siders it as an adult orang. But not until 1835 was a 
clear and trustworthy ar^count published on the chim- 
panzee and orang. In this. Prof. Owen for. the first 
time gave correct figures of these animals, and a 
comparison of their skeletons. The result of all in- 



HIS RELATIONS TO THE ANTHROPOID APES. 73 

vestigations up to the present is the accurate delinea- 
tion of four species of man-like apes or anthropoids, 
the gibbon and orang of Eastern Asia, the chimpan- 
zee and gorilla of Western Africa. 

The anatomical peculiarities of these may be thus 
stated : They have the same number of teeth^as man, 
four incisors, two canines, four false molars, and six 
true molars in each jaw, or thirty -two in all. The num- 
ber and character of their milk-teeth also agree with 
man's ; they are twenty in number, four incisors, two 
canines, and four molars, in each jaw. Their nostrils 
have a narrow partition, and look down, whence their 
name catarrhine ; and their arms are longer propor- 
tionately than man's. The chimpanzee approaches 
nearest to man in the length of its arms ; and, in the 
series, the gorillas, gibbons, and orangs follow, the gib- 
bon when standing upright being able to reach the 
ground with its hands. Their arms are terminated by 
true hands, and the legs by true feet. The great 
toe is more flexible than in man, and can be used 
like a thumb. They are entirely tailless, and are des- 
titute of the cheek-pouches which characterize the 
monkey. They are exclusively confined to the tropical 
regions of the Old World ; and, from the record of fossil 
remains, always were thus confined. 

It is unnecessary to present a classification of these 
apes. The classification, if perfect, would be profitless, 
but is now very far from perfection. I shall give a 
description of each drawn from accurate sources, re- 
jecting every thing that appears unreliable. Our 
knowledge is extremely deficient ; and it must be 
confessed that we know almost as little of ther habits 



74 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

as the last century did of their anatomy. They dwell 
in the most inaccessible regions of the globe to Euro- 
peans, and have never been seen in their native haunts 
by men qualified by science to appreciate and note 
the essential facts wanted. A Wallace is not found 
once in a generation qualified to penetrate the jungle 
of the tropics, and observe and reflect on the new 
nature there unfolded. We may safely say that one 
half of the earth is yet unknown to us. The wild 
stories of ordinary travellers are wholly untrustworthy ; 
and nearly all are too much engaged in telling of their 
own inconveniences to devote a line to the subjects 
of vital importance to science. 

The gibbons number about a half-dozen species, and 
dwell in the Asiatic Islands of Java, Sumatra, Borneo, 
and in Malacca, Siam, Arracan, and, to an unknown 
extent, in Hindostan. They are the smallest of the 
anthropoids, being about three feet high when erect. 
They are of various colors, and, according to Dr. Miil- 
ler, lovers of the precipitous mountains, although they 
do not ascend higher than the limits of the fig. Their 
voice has a tremendous volume, like that of the howl- 
ing monkeys of South America. It is grave, and 
may be heard half a league, resembling the sounds 
goe-ek, goe-ek, goe-ek, goe-ek, goe goek, ha, ha, ha, ha, 
haaa-a-a-a : when confined to a room, it is deafening. 
This animal is not more than one-fourth the size of a 
man; yet the voice of the latter, if as strong, would 
be audible five or six miles. 

All the species of gibbons generally walk erect, 
and sleep in a sitting posture. Mr. Bennett, in his 
" Wanderings in New South Wales,'^ says that one in 



HIS RELATIONS TO THE ANTHROPOID APES. 75 

his possession always walked erect, assisting itself with 
its hands, — as its arms were so long that its fingers 
reached the ground, — or more usually with its arms 
uplifted. Their gait is quick, but awkward. 

This is the testimony of Drs. Burrough and -Lewis. 
Mr. Martin says, ^^ Pre-eminently qualified for arboreal 
habits, and displaying among the branches amazing 
activity, the gibbons are not so awkward or embar- 
rassed on a level surface as might be imagined. They 
walk erect, with a waddling or unsteady gait, but at 
a quick pace ; the equilibrium of the body requiring 
to be kept up^ either by touching the ground with the 
knuckles, — first on one side, then on the other, — -or 
by nplifting the arms so as to poise it. As with the 
chimpanzee, the whole of the narrow, long sole of the 
foot is placed upon the ground at once, and raised at 
once, without any elasticity of step.'' 

It cannot be doubted, from all this concurrent testi- 
mony, that the gibbon walks erect ; but it is at home 
in the branches of the forest, where it springs from 
branch to branch as though furnished with wings. It 
clears spaces of forty feet, leaping from branch to 
branch for hours at a time without apparent fatigue. 
Tbey will seize a bird midway of their longest leaps 
with one hand, and grasp a branch with the other, — 
a feat never equalled by any circus performer. When 
going with a velocity scarcely traceable by the eye, 
they will suddenly seize a branch, and, as if by magic, 
seat themselves upon it. 

They are of gentle disposition unless irritated. Their 
food is fruits and insects, and they relish animal diet. 
They have a mental endowment superior to the brute, 



76 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

and a consciousness of right and wrong, if we can 
believe a reliable observer. Mr. Bennett, who, after 
speaking of a gibbon who stole a bar of soap, but re- 
turned it as soon as he saw that he was discovered, 
remarks, ^^ There was certainly something more than 
instinct in that action : he evidently betrayed a con- 
sciousness of having done wrong, both by his first and 
last actions ; and what is reason, if that is not an 
exercise of it ? '' 

Drs. Miiller and Schlegel in 1845 published an ex- 
haustive account of the orang-outang. This animal 
inhabits the low plains of Borneo and Sumatra, and is 
rare. It loves the densest jungle, where they usually 
live singly, except at certain seasons. The young are 
under their mother's care an unusual length of time, 
and are carried against her breast. It is uncertain 
how long they are in reaching maturity; but it is 
probable they do not until ten or fifteen years of age, 
and that they live to be forty or fifty years old. 

The orang has none of the agility of the gibbon. 
It is sluggish, and only stirs to appease its hunger. 
It will sit down, its arms drooping beside it, and re- 
main without a motion for hours. During the day it 
ascends to the loftiest branches, but at night descends. 
It selects a proper place, where the branches are solid, 
and makes a bed of twigs and leave-s, sometimes sev- 
eral inches thick. The orang rises with the sun, and 
goes to bed about the time of its setting. He lies on 
his back, or, for change, on his side, resting his head 
on his arm for a pillow. On windy, rainy, or cold 
nights, he contrives to make himself comfortable by 



HIS RELATIONS TO THE ANTHROPOID APES. 77 

wrapping up in several huge palm-leaves, which he 
uses as blankets. 

He has none of the agility of the monkey ; and, 
although he seeks the topmost branches of the largest 
trees, he is an awkward climber, ascending laboriously 
exactly as a man would do. He is careful lest he get 
a fall, never trusting a branch until he has first tested 
its strength by shaking it : this he will do even when 
-closely pursued. On the ground, he walks on all-fours ; 
but the length of his arms compels him to stand nearly 
upright, or in the position of an old man. His feet 
touch the ground only at their outer surface or edge ; 
and the hands touch only at their inner edge, the 
thumb serving as a strong point of support. When 
pursued it will run as fast as a man, but can be soon 
overtaken. It never walks perfectly upright, and all 
representations of its doing so are incorrect. 

Its long arms are serviceable in gathering fruit from 
branches too slender to support its weight. Its food 
is exclusively vegetable : blossoms, young leaves, 
bamboo, figs, and other fruits. 

When taken young, he is docile, and seeks human 
society, but is naturally wild and sly, and, when 
wounded, will rush on his assailants with a rage and 
strength which nothing can withstand. Usually he 
seeks to hide himself, or climbs to the highest branches, 
uttering a singular cry, at first very high, but subsid- 
ing into a low roar. When pursued, he will break ofi" 
branches, and throw them at his pursuers. Wallace 
says, ^' In one case a female, on a durian-tree, kept 
up for at least ten minutes a continuous shower of 
branches, and of the heavy spined fruit as large as 



78 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

32-pounders, which most effectually kept us clear 
of the tree she was on. She could be seen breaking 
them off, and throwing them down with every appear- 
ance of rage, evidently meaning mischief.'^ 

The crocodile is the only animal attacked by the 
orang ; and then the former is the aggressor, watch- 
ing for the latter as he comes down to drink. The 
natives say that the orang is more than a match for 
the scaly monster, tearing at his throat, or beating 
him to death with stones or clubs. 

The character of the orang, given by Miiller, is ex- 
ceeding bad : " He is a very wild beast, of prodigious 
strength, and false and wicked to the last degree. If 
any one approached, he rose up slowly with a low 
growl, fixed his eyes in the direction in which he 
meant to make his attack, slowly passed his hand be- 
tween the bars of his cage, and then, extending his 
long arm, gave a sudden grip, usually at the face." 
His intelligence was great, his hearing acute, vision 
less perfect, and his under-lip the organ of touch. 
When he drank he doubled the latter up like a trough, 
and turned the water given him info it. 

There are several species of orang in Borneo. 
Their average height is four feet two inches. The 
color of the hair varies w^ith individuals. Some have 
the rudiments of a nail on the great toe, others have 
not. The form of the skull is also subject to great 
variation, unlike all other wild animals. The length 
of the muzzle, and slope of the profile, the width and 
height of the orbit of the eyes, and development of the 
cranial ridge, vary as much as among European skulls ; 
no two being alike. 



HIS RELATIONS TO THE ANTHROPOID APES. 79 

Tiie chimpanzee has been often brought to Europe 
while yoTing; but no one previous to Dr. Savage 
has described the habits of the adults in their native 
wilds. It is larger than the orang, measuring five 
feet in tength. It is often seen walking ; but, when it 
finds itself observed, it immediately falls on all-fours, 
and runs away. When it stands erect, it throws its 
arms back of its head, or behind its back, to balance 
itself Its natural position is on all-fours ; but owing 
to its toes being bent inward so that their upper sur- 
face rests on the ground, and its fingers being also 
much bent, its gait is awkward and shaky. Its home 
is in the branches of tall trees. It is an expert 
climber, and, like the gibbon, will throw itself from 
branch to branch with great agility. They are not 
gregarious, but families remain together ; and, for 
amusement, large numbers assemble. They are then 
boisterous and frolicsome : hooting, screeching, and 
drummins: with sticks on hollow trees. 

They never make an attack, but, when assailed, will 
throw their aiTQS around their foe, and draw him up 
to their formidable teeth. They feed on vegetables ; 
but in a state of domestication, although they refuse 
it at first, they readily acquire a taste for flesh. 

It avoids the abode of man, and builds its nest in 
the dense forest in a similar manner to the orang. 

^^ They exhibit a remarkable degree of intelhgence 
in their habits, and, on the part of the mother, much 
afi'ection for their young. In a recent case, the mother, 
when discovered, remained upon the tree with her 
ofi'spring, watching intently the movements of the 
hunter. As he took aim, she motioned with her hand, 



80 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

precisely in the manner of a human being, fo have 
him desist, and go away. When the wound has not 
proved instantly fatal, they have been known to stop 
the flow of blood by pressing with the hand upon the 
part, and, when they did not succeed, to apply leaves 
and grass. When shot, they give a sudden screech 
not unlike that of a human being in sudden and acute 
distress.^' — Dr, Savage. 

On the same authority, we have the very full and 
reliable account of the last of the man-like apes, the 
gorilla. He shows that the names ^^ Pongo,'' Euche- 
eko, Enge-ena, and ^^ Jocko,^' belong to two or more 
species to which they have been indiscriminately ap- 
plied. Its known habitat is Guinea, from the Cama- 
roon to Angola, and how much farther is unknown. 
It is about five feet high, and disproportionally broad 
across the shoulders* It is covered thickly with 
coarse black hair, which becomes gray with age. 
They walk by thrusting their long arms forward, and 
then, resting their hands on the ground, give their 
body a swing between them, like a man walking by 
the aid of two crutches. When it walks erect, which it 
inclines to do, it throws its arms upward to preserve 
its balance. 

They live in bands ; and usually there is but one 
male to each band, the strongest male vanquishing 
or destroying the weaker. Their dwellings are leafy 
beds made in the convenient crotch of a tree, and are 
occupied only at night. 

They are ferocious, and never run from man. They 
are objects of greatest dread to the natives. When 
first observed, the male gives a terrific cry like kh-ah, 



HIS RELATIONS TO THE ANTHROPOID APES. 81 

kh-ah ! opening wide his enormous mouth. At the 
first cry, the females and young conceal themselves. 
He then rushes towards his assailant. This he does 
in an erect posture. His mouth is distended, showing 
his ghstening teeth: his under lip hangs down, and the 
hairy ridge is contracted over his eyes; presenting an 
aspect of indescribable ferocity, the more from the half- 
human expression which gleams beneath this brutality. 
As he rushes on, he strives to terrify his adversary by 
unearthly shrieks. If the hunter is not sure of his 
aim, he waits until the gorilla seizes his gun and 
conveys it to his month; then he fires. If his gun 
should fail, the barrel is crushed between the jaws of 
his foe ; and the contest is soon fatal. 

Having briefly stated the little that is reliably 
known of the habit of the man-like apes, I shall pro- 
ceed to an equally brief comparison of structure. 

If man belongs to the animal world, he must touch 
it at some point. The popular classifications of ani- 
mals teach the relations he sustains. It is not to the 
dog, the horse, the deer, that he is closest related, but 
to the quadrumana, or ape family. It is not difficult 
to make this assignment, nor is it more so to yield 
the place next to him to the chimpanzee or gorilla. 
On in:]^uiry, we shall find that the interval which sep- 
arates the gorilla from man is no greater than that 
which separates the gorilla from members of its fam- 
ily, or the extreme races of men from each other. 
The gorilla^s brain is smaller, its legs shorter, and its 
arms, feet, and hands longer, than those of man. But 
man varies in the proportion of these members, and the 
species of anthropoids present a wide variation. The 

6 



82 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF M^N. 

hylobate contains within itself the extreme variation 
of both pairs of limbs; its arms being as much longer 
than the gorilla's as the latter's are longer than man's, 
and its legs are as much longer than man's as man's 
are longer than the gorilla's. 

The mandrill's limbs are of nearly equal length, be- 
ing shorter than the spinal column ; and its hand and 
feet have the same relative size to the spine and to 
one another as in man. The spider monkey has legs 
longer than its spine, and arms longer than its legs ; 
the indri [Lichanotus'] has legs longer than its spinal 
column, while its arms are little more than half as 
long. Thus do we see, that, in this striking conforma- 
tion, the apes differ more from each other than they 
do from man. 

The hand and foot of the primates, or man-like apes, 
agree with those of man. It has been said, and the 
classification of the monkeys as quadrumana is based 
on the idea, that they have four hands. This is erro- 
neous. The primates have true feet and true hands. 
To prove this, we need enter into no lengthy anato- 
mical discussion. There are a few salient points 
which prove the matter conclusively. In the toes, 
there are first the phalanges, then metatarsal bones, 
forming the toes as the same do the fingers. As 
we enter the massive portion of the hand or foot, 
the relations of the bones change. The tarsus, which 
corresponds to the carpus of the hand, forms four 
short polygonal bones in a row. In the foot, instead 
of four more tarsal bones, there are but three ; and 
these do not lie side by side. One forms the project- 
ing heel ; another lies on this on one face, and forms 



HIS RELATIONS TO THE ANTHROPOID APES. 83 

by another, with the bones of the leg, the ankle-joint ; 
while its third face articulates with the remaining 
tarsus, which unites it to the metatarsus. The greater 
or less flexibility of the great toe, in the character of 
a thumb, is of no consequence, as it presupposes no 
anatomical differences. Thus there is a marked dif- 
ference between the hand and the foot. If we exam- 
ine a gorilla, we shall find the &ame differences. - Its 
foot is set more obliquely, and the great toe is more 
flexible ; but in bone and muscle it is a foot, not as 
perfect as man's^ w^iich must always support the* 
weight of the body in an upright position, but in 
every sense of the word a true foot. 

Man does not depart from the gorilla in hand or 
foot more than the orang departs from the gorilla ; 
and the lower monkeys depart still more widely. In 
some the great toe and the thumb become entirely 
dwarfed, and are concealed under the folds of the 
skin, as in the spider-monkeys ; while in others they 
are directed forwards, and armed with curved claws 
like the other digits, as in the marmosets. But, after 
all these changes, the foot remains essentially a foot 
in the lowest of the monkeys, and the hand a hand. 

The vertebral column of man presents an elegant 
curve, by which the shoulders are arched, and the 
back hollowed, and the weight of the body balanced. 
The gorilla and chimpanzee, especially when young, 
present the same, though in a less degree. They 
have the same number of vertebra. The gorilla has 
thirteen pairs of ribs, while man has but twelve ; often, 
however, he has thirteen pairs. The lower apes greatly 
vary, departing widely from this number. The pel- 



84 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

vie or hip bones are broad and strong in man, in order 
to support the viscera in an erect posture. The go- 
rilla generally walks erect, and its pelvic bones are 
much like man^s. As the apes are examined, it is 
found, that, in direct proportion as their habits are to 
walk upright, the hip bones are stronger ; and the op- 
posite, until they become thin blades, in those who 
never stand erect. Between the pelvis of the gibbons 
and gorillas there is more diflference than between 
that of the gorilla and man. 

The skull of man is comparatively smooth. That of 
the anthropoids is very ridgy and dense. It is quite 
different from its external appearance. The low facial 
angle is not produced by deficiency of skull so much 
as prominency of the facial bones. It is said that the 
skull and facial bones widely differ from man's, but 
not as much as the members of the ape family differ 
from each other. The proportions of the gorilla's 
muzzle are enlarged in the baboon, and projected 
forward in a brute-like manner ; while in the former 
the development is downward, — essentially a human 
characteristic. The projection of the muzzle of the 
baboon is carried farther and farther in the monkey's, 
and becomes essentially like other brutes in the lemur. 

In short, wherever the conformation of the skull, 
the face, or the skeleton, of the man-like apes differs 
from man's, greater differences can be found between 
them and the lower members of the ape family. 

In the brain, that most important organ of animal 
life, and which determines by its development the 
amount of iiitelligence manifested, the saine holds 
true. 



HIS RELATIONS TO THE ANTHROPOID APES. 85 

The apes furnish a complete series of gradations of 
the brain, from the rodents to one little lower than that 
of man. Nature seems determined to break down 
all classificatory distinctions between apes and man 
founded on anatomical structure of that most vital 
organ. In the whole family, except the lemurs, the pos- 
terior lobes of the cerebrum conceal the cerebellum, 
and the posterior cornu, hippocampus major and minor, 
are developed. In many (as chrysothrix), the posterior 
lobes extend relatively farther back than in man. This 
is quite contrary to the received notion, which has 
been given in the books, that the posterior lobes of the 
cerebrum of apes were so undeveloped, that, looking 
down on the brain, the cerebellum was exposed to 
view. " In fact,'^ writes Prof Huxley, " all the abundant 
and trustworthy evidence (consisting of the results 
of careful investigations of these very questions by 
skilled anatomists) which we now possess leads to 
the conviction, that so far from the posterior lobe, the 
posterior cornu, and the hippocampus minor, being 
structures peculiar to and characteristic of man, as 
they have been over and over asserted to be, even 
after the publication of the clearest demonstrations of 
the reverse, it is precisely these structures which are 
the most marked cerebral characteristics common to 
man and the apes. They are among the most distinct 
simian peculiarities which the human organism exhib- 
its.'' 

" According to M. Geoffrey, the brain of the young 
orang bears a close resemblance to that of a child ; 
and the skull also might be taken at an early age 
for that of the latter, were it not for the development 



86 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

of the bones of the face.'' The change effected in 
the adult skull is produced by the excessive growth 
of the cranial ridges, which serve for the attachment 
of muscles. 

The convolutions of the brains of apes exhibit 
every stage of advance, from the marmosets, which 
present an almost smooth surface, to the orang and 
chimpanzee, ^vhich in form and depth fall little below 
that of man. What is notable and of great weight in 
determining the unity of man and animals is, that, 
where the convolutions first appear, they form, as it 
w^ere, a skeleton* map of the brain of man, occupying 
the same place as in his brain ; and, as we arise, at 
each advance the new convolutions agree with similar 
ones in his brain, until, in the man-like apes, the 
constant presence of fissures absent in his brain, the 
different arrangement of some convolutions, — unes- 
sential characters, — is all the difference between 
their brains and that of man's. 

Their brains are not as heavy in proportion to their 
bodies as man's, and make here a greater departure 
than in anv other direction. The lowest estimate of a 
healthy European brain cannot be placed lower than 
thirty -two ounces, nor of a gorilla at more* tlian twenty 
ounces. But the gorilla is nearly twice as heavy as 
a European of so small a brain ; so that the relation 
would.be as ten ounces to thirty-two, or say only one- 
third. But European brains have weighed sixty-five 
ounces, and hence the gorilla would have but two- 
thirteenths as heavy a brain. This subject of size of 
brain explains the wide departure of man's intellect 
from the animal world. 



HIS RELATIONS TO THE ANTHROPOID APES. 87 

In spinal column, in skull, in teeth, in hand, in 
foot, or brain, there is no structual variation placing 
man bej'ond the animal, or assigning him to another 
type of structure; but every fact proves ttie perfect 
unity of his type of being with theirs. 

There is one consideration more, which bears di- 
rectly on this question: Do the human fossil skulls 
make any perceptible approach to the gorillas ? The ' 
interval of time between us and these fossils is ybyj 
great, but is insignificant compared with the duration 
since the introduction of man; so that the few muti- 
lated specimens as yet discovered do not belong to a 
sufficiently early age to show any great approxima- 
tion, yet they certainly make a step in the direction 
of the animal, and that beyond the most savage of 
existing men. 

The Engis skull from a cave in the Valley of the 
Mense, on the authority of Lyell, belonged to the sam^ 
age as the mammoth, and woolly rhinoceros ; and the 
Neanderthall skull belongs to the same period. It is to 
be expected, that, at so remote a time, a savage type 
would be presented. This is more than realized. The 
contour of the Engis skull agrees with the Australian 
type, especially in its occipital flattening. The facial 
bones of both -are wanting; and, as these are far more 
characteristic than the skull, the full relationship can- 
not be determined. The Neanderthall skull passes by 
the Australian; and in the heaviness of its ridges, its 
verti-cal depression, its sloping occiput, its squamosal 
sutures, it approaches the ape much more than any 
other human skull. In internal capacity it rises above 
the gorilla, but not so far as the latter does above the 



88 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

gibbon, and scarcely more than the largest human brain 
exceeds the smallest. The largest human skull meas- 
ured by Morton contained one hundred and fourteen 
inches ; and the smallest, according to Wagner, that of 
an adult female of ordinary intellect, 55.3 inches. The 
capacity of the gorilla is 34.5 inches : thus, between 
the brain of the gorilla and the smallest brain of man, 
there is only a difference of 10.5 inches, while be- 
tween the smallest (not idiotic) and largest human 
brain there is a difference of 58.7 inches. 

Whither tend all these facts, if not to place man at 
the head of the animal world, as the perfected fruit of 
incomprehensible miltenniums of its growth and prog- 
ress ? 



CHAPTER III. 
ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. 

The Myth of the Tower of Babel. — Is Man the only Being possessing Lan- 
guage ? — Growth of Language illustrated in the Romance Tongues. — 
The Language of Animals. — Intonations of Savage Man. — Ideas of 
Savages. — Language the Expression of Ideas. — Polysynthesism, its 
Outgrowths. — Comparison with the Growth of Living Beings. — Fossil 
Languages a sure Guide in History. — Inevitable Growth of Language. 

^. — The Sanskrit. — Rig- Veda. — Difficulty of crossing Languages. — 
Rapid Changes in the Dialects of Savages. — The great Achievement 
of Comparative Philology, — the Discovery of an Ancient Tongue to 
which Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, &c., are mutually related. — Its Method 
of Research. — What is a just Estimate of the Affinities of Dialects? — 
Agassiz' Theory of Language opposed. — Conclusions. 

Perhaps no problem has more perplexed philoso- 
phers than that of the origin of language. Whence 
came the wonderful instrument by which thought 
more subtle and evanescent than lightning could ex- 
press itself, and, through the secondary means of 
symbolic characters, array itself in permanent form ? 
The task of furnishing a solution seemed hopeless, 
when the philosopher looked over the world with its 
diversity of races, speaking several thousand dialects 
mutually unintelligible, and considered that these 
were but a remnant of the tongues which have gone 
down to oblivion. 

In remotest historic time, the question was asked ; 
and the God-fearing Hebrew answered, that, because 

89 



90 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

man thought to evade the dictates of Jehovah by 
building the Tower of Babel, each went away from 
that unpropitious labor speaking a different tongue. 
The myth is beautiful^ but we know, that, ages before, 
there was the same degree of diversity as at present. 

The name Babel or Babylon tells us that it was not 
the tower, but the city, wherein reigned confusion of 
dialects. Situated on the boundaries of two great 
branches of speech, it drew within its walls dialects 
of each. Prom the word the myth arose, as many 
have before and since. 

Wise men have considered that man could only 
have possessed language by a miracle. They think 
that by it he is wholly severed from the animal world. 
As William von Humboldt expresses it, "Man is man 
only through the power of speech ; but, to possess 
speech, he must already be man.'' Thus he stands 
alone the only speaking being on the earth. If this 
be true, the acquirement of language is an impossi- 
bility: it must have been given him ready formed. 
An eminent philosopher thinks that it was the work 
of a conclave of sages. Wonderful, indeed, would 
have been their mute deliberations : he should tell us 
how they arrived at their conclusions, having no lan- 
guage wherewith to reason together. 

Speculation is scarcely admissible ; for, by observa- 
tion, we can see the rise and steady growth of lan- 
guages. The six Romance dialects, the English, the 
German, were all born in historic time. They are 
recent, and we know that they have developed from 
pre-existing dialects, as the English from the Latin 
and Anglo-Saxon, the Romance tongues from a de- 



ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. 91 

composition of Latin; yet no learned body of men 
ever sat in council to mould their grammatical construc- 
tioUj or give definitions to words of any of them. 
The mandates of kings have been of small avail in 
giving tone to popular speech. The change has been 
gradual. The lisp of childhood, the garrulity of age, 
the sage and the idiot, have all helped. . No one can 
say when Italian became Italian and not Latin, French 
became French, Spanish became Spanish. The dif- 
ferentiation was, however, effected ; and the seeming 
difference between the modern dialects is great. 

Language is not fashioned by rules of men; it 
grows by rules established in the constitution of 
mind : it is not created by reason, but by growth. 
Primarily, language is but vocalized expression ; and, 
in this sense, all animals have each a tongue peculiar 
to themselves. 

The roar of the lion by its intonation informs all 
other lions of his feelings and thoughts, whether 
of hunger, pain, or anger. The wolf's howl of hun- 
ger is unlike its call for its companions. The carol 
of the song-bird, the scream of the eagle, are as ex- 
pressive as though translated into human speech: we 
readily understand these simple, unequivocal, vocal- 
izations of passion. They are words of a language 
unknown to us, except as we understand by intona- 
tion and signs. Locke, Monboddo, and others, sup- 
pose animals have no language because they do not 
have abstract ideas. It may be true that they have 
not; but is language confined to the conveyance of 
abstract ideas ? When the hour-old babe cries, ^^ Ma ! '^ 
has it abstract ideas ? or when it is capable of ex- 



92 THE ORIGIN AXD ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

pressing its wants by an attempted articulation of the 
name of the object, or in thos'e Oriental negroes 
wherein language is reduced to its lowest estate, or 
in the case of the laborers in England whose entire 
vocabulary is found not to contain three hundred 
words, how many abstract ideas is this instrument 
called on to convey ? All animals have rudimentary 
organs of speech, and many have them in great per- 
fection. Why do they not vibrate with thrilling 
words ? Because there is no mind behind the organs, 
capable of originating thrilling ideas. With the glot- 
tis of the gorilla, or even with an artificial one, man 
could articulate perfectly. 

Animals, by the ircharacteristic intonations, express 
their few and simple thoughts, confined exclusively to 
their corporeal wants and passions. Between civil- 
ized man and the animal there is a tremendous reach 
of intellect, and perhaps a complete addition of morals. 
The interval is filled, in a great measure, by savage 
peoples, and by beings that are now extinct. This 
diff*erence yields a perfected speech. That intellect 
and morals express themselves through his organs 
of speech is as natural and consistent as that the 
passions should through those of animals. The lan- 
guage of abstract ideas is as natural as the processes 
of thought by which such ideas are evolved. It is 
nothing foreign to him, but an outgrowth of mind. 

Savage man is born on the globe languageless ; but 
he has thoughts and the organs to express those 
thoughts, and his first infant cry is the first word of his 
language. He expresses pain by cries, and laughs when 
pleased. His language may not be greatly superior 



ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. - 93 

to the animals. A hundred words may fully express 
all his ideas, and those principally names of objects ; 
as animals, trees, places. The relations these bear to 
each other and to him could be expressed by ges- 
tures ; for communication in such a state would 
require more intuition than reason. 

Thought necessarily precedes expression; for a word 
is the symbol of an idea, and could not be created 
without the idea. As the savage began to have clearer 
ideas, he would endeavor to express himself with 
greater clearness : new words would spontaneously 
arise ; and, as they awoke similar ideas in the hearer, 
when he desired to convev that idea he would u^e 
the same word which had conveyed that idea to him ; 
and thus the articulation would come to stand for the 
idea, leaving a wide margin, however, for gesture. 
The ideas of savages are not complex, but as simple 
as those of children. Hence they strive to present 
them simultaneously by a single effort or word ; and 
from this results agglutination or polysynthesism, a 
characteristic of ancient and of savage languages. 
They combine the phrase into a single tightly inter- 
locked word, containing all its appendages and shades 
of meaning. The language thus formed is composed 
of stereotyped phrases. The tongue sets forth, with 
an intonation expressive of the individual's sensation, 
neither noun, verb, nor adjective, but capable of being 
either, or all combined. It is a simple expression of 
feehng, as of joy, pain, or hope. 

. Such is the elementary condition of all languages, 
and is preserved in many at present. 

As ideas, by the development of mind, became clear- 



94 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

er, the necessity of distingiiisliiiig the parts of a 
sentence by which they are expressed becomes evi- 
dent, and noun and verb are distinguished ; words set 
apart to express action not being used to express 
the names of things. In Chinese^ this stage has not 
been attained. Traces of the previous condition are 
met with in English, far away as it is from its original 
polysynthesism ; as the employment of many words 
as nouns, and also as verbs : as fly, an insect ; fly, to 
move through the air. 

Language advances by analysis, by which the parts 
of a sentence are differentiated from each other, and 
appropriate oflSces assigned to each. 

When savage man began to aggregate into tribes, 
each tribe would commence the formation of a language 
of its own. There would be expressions common to 
all, based on the anatomical structure of the organs 
of speech; but, independent of these, each tribe 
would rapidly acquire new expressions. Those dwell- 
ing among mountains, surrounded by the most startling 
phenomena of Nature, would have quite dift'erent 
sensations from those dwelling on extensive plains. 
Each would have idens awakened by surrounding 
scenes, which the others would not have, and hence 
words to express those sensations which the others 
would not have. Man is a creature of circumstances ; 
and the great Humboldt has told in beautiful language 
how the human heart vibrates to the ever-varying as- 
pects of surrounding Nature. 

From this starting-point, the various languages di- 
verge until so widely separated that their origin is 
lost ; and the most expert linguist fails to observe any 



ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. 95 

other relationship, except such as grows out of the 
similarity of anatomy in all races. 

Some tribes have exhausted the forms of expression 
on the verb, using it as the means of designating the 
relationship of the sentence ; others have used the 
substantive, to mark .by its variations the inter-rela- 
tion of its dependencies. No language is perfect, and 
some races express shades of meaning which have 
remained unrecognized by others. Thus the Sanskrit, 
so much richer than the Greek in the manner it indi- 
cates the relations of a noun to a phrase, of words 
between themselves, and the nature of the verb, has 
no mood for a verb distinct from time. 

The general mechanism of language is everywhere 
the same ; for that is dependent on the anatomical 
structure of the brain which originates, and the or- 
gans which express thought ; and human nature, from 
the poles to the equator, is very near the same. 

When we view this wonderful structure, so harmo- 
nious in all its parts ; so delicately and logically con- 
stituted ; expressive of the minutest shade of feeling ; 
capable of conveying the inspirations of Jehovah, or 
illuminating the darkest province of Nature, — we are 
lost in amazement, and shrink from referring it to the 
silent and imperceptible growth of ages. 

It appears complete, as the work of one man grasp- 
ing the wants and feelings of all other men ; yet we 
know by the records of history that it has been built 
up by the conjoint labors of all men, laboring unknow- 
ingly, as bees building in harmony a beautiful and 
mathematically constructed comb. The philosopher 
coining a new word to express the scarcely defined 



96 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

shade of meaning he wishes to convey, the playful 
chance misarticulation of the child, the word of wis- 
dom, the rude utterance of the boor, the polite language 
of refinement, the slang of the street, even the voice 
of the wild brute, is incorporated in this structure. 

Drawing existence from so many sources, at once 
seemingly fortuitous and conflicting, how wonderful 
that each language should be a perfect harmony, and 
all be related by the deep foundation of their struc- 
ture ! The explanation is very simple. The organs 
of speech are the same, except the slightest varia- 
tions, in all races of mankind. They are capable 
of making but a certain number of distinct articula- 
tions or sounds. The imperfect organs of the animal 
realm cannot make all of these, nor can the rudest 
races of men ; but what they do make are of these, 
and they can make no others. The song of the 
bird, and roar or growl of the wild beast, are made 
with consonants and vowels : all their voices can be 
expressed by letters. Thus all races have a few 
simple sounds to build with. There is no language 
which uses all of these. The choice is probably the 
result of slight anatomical peculiarities. 

These sounds savage man crowds or agglutinizes 
into one spontaneous expression, as representing an 
idea or emotion, just as the lion to express anger ut- 
ters an explosive or prolonged growl, or the w^olf a 
repeated howl. There is simply the expression of 
feeling heightened by gesture. The phrase is nothing 
more than a gesture of the tongue. This is what may 
be considered the rudest state of the language of 



ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. 97 

man. It is sufficient to meet tlie wants of the savage, 
as it expresses all his feelings and ideas. 

As he advances out of his savagehood, ideas arise 
independent of objects. The mind not only is capable 
of receiving ideas of objects, but can unite these 
simple terms into complex thoughts, and put forth 
such thoughts as intangible representatives of tangi- 
ble things. Delicate relations are discovered which 
cannot be expressed by conglomerated phrases. By 
analysis the primitive words are disintegrated, and 
changed to meet the new requirements. 

This growth is like that of the development of life, 
seen in the evolution of the chain of living beings 
revealed by geology. There is first but one organ to 
serve all purposes : slowly other organs form to meet 
various requirements. The assimilation of food is the 
essential condition of animal life, and hence the first 
organ is a stomach. The animal is nothing more than 
a stomach floating in the water; so the cardinal require- 
ment of speech is the expression of thought, and the 
tongue makes one gesture for that object. 

To this simple, floating sac, organs for locomotion ; a 
complicated digestive system, composed of members 
between whom the labor is divided ; circulating ner- 
vous systems, the latter receiving impressions of 
seeing, hearing, feeling, — are added one by one, until 
it becomes a wonderful being, capable of meeting the 
most varied requirements. 

So from the original phrase-word, which is neither 
noun, verb, nor other part of speech, but either, or all 
combined, these parts are developed by a slow process 
to a complete separation. 



98 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

If we admit the theory herein advanced, by study- 
ing the various tongues from the savage to the 
civilized, the process by which the advance or growth 
is made can be readily discerned. For if the most 
civiHzed was once in the same condition as the agglu- 
tinated tongues of savages, and all are following after 
the same manner of growth, then the diverse lan- 
guages of the world become but so many stages 
through which the highest have passed, and the en- 
tire history of growth is revealed. 

It is as though language had left fossil remains all 
along the path of its ascent, and those, too, far less 
equivocal than those of geology. 

It is a living, growing structure, always the perfect 
photograph of the mind which uses it. It changes 
from year to year, from century to century; rarely 
enduring a thousand years. This growth is affected 
by the aggregation of words from other languages, and 
the growth of thought coining new. words to express 
itself, or giving new meanings to old words. This 
process can be observed in every writer or speaker. 
Often words used in the slang of the vulgar are ele- 
vated into polished literature. The developments 
of science have introduced during the pres.ent century 
many thousand new words, and our lexicons have to be 
revised every year. Language seeks to become cos- 
mopolitan. As geological knowledge extends, and 
the facilities for travel and mutual interchange of 
thought and commodities perfect, each language 
grasps to itself all others. Each race learns the 
thoughts of others ; and how can the new thought be 



ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. 99 

better expressed than by the words by which it was 
first conveyed ? 

Even languages which are held as sacred, and sac- 
rilegious to corrupt, have not been preserved from 
change and decay. Before the Christian era, Hebrew 
had ceased to live ; and Sanskrit, venerated for ages 
by the Hindoo as the vehicle of the divine utterance 
of the Vedas and sacred poems, shared the same fate. 
It is an easy task to observe the growth of a lan- 
guage. Words retain vestiges of their origin, such 
as silent letters, not of any use in pronouncing the- 
word, but once employed in the old speech. If we 
go back any considerable distance, say m English, we 
shall find that a great many words from which the 
silent letters have now disappeared then retained 
them ; and by their aid the origin of the words can be 
determined. 

The Sanskrit, the oldest written language, affords 
the best view of development. It is so intricate and 
wonderfully complicated, that it astonished the schol- 
ars of Europe, who held for a long time that it was 
an invention of philosophic Brahmins to preserve 
their knowledge from the common people ; but now 
it is discovered that those common people speak a 
language which must have grown out of the Sanskrit 
by ages of decay and corruption. In its first appear- 
ance in the Rig-Veda, it has all the inversion, com- 
plexity, and agglutinized characteristics of the savage 
age of spontaneous thought. Then follows the age 
of analysis, carried to the extent of the decomposition 
of its grammar. The process then ceases ; for the 
language becomes too unwieldy to be used when 



100 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

brought in collision with the dialect of a conquering 
race. Here a fact is brought to light of a very in- 
teresting nature. When two languages are brought 
in contact, the more advanced or analytical gains 
the ascendency. Thus the French tends to sujDplant 
German and the Basque-Breton, when the two coalesce 
on the borders, and in its turn, when spoken by ne- 
groes, is simplified in structure to the level of an 
African tongue. 

Languages are diflScult to cross from this cause. 
The barbarians conquered Rome, but lost their lan- 
guage by doing so. The Romance tongues are mon- 
uments of the enduring logic of Latin speech. The 
Anglo-Saxon language only appropriated a few words, 
and names of places, of the Celto-Britons. The 
Arab has in vain endeavored to compel his Persian 
subjects. to speak the language of the Koran. They 
employ Arabic words to such an extent, that whole 
sentences are spoken in pure Arabic ; yet the struc- 
ture of such sentences remains purely Persian. The 
modern Greek still uses the idiom of Demosthenes, 
yet with so changed a vocabulary, that that orator 
could not understand his modern countrymen. The 
Turkish, one of the widest-spread languages, so 
tenaciously retains its Tartarian structure, that the 
rude Yakat from the frozen regions of Siberia and 
the polished Turko-Sybarite of luxurious Constan- 
tinople, although their ancestors were separated be- 
yond the ken of tradition, are mutually intelligible 
to each other. 

Numerous facts prove that language is of growth, 
and that its development is due to the expansion of 



ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE.* 101 

mind. This statement has no reference to the perfec- 
tion of structure, but to the capability and perfection 
of conveying thought. Some savage tongues have 
very perfect structure : this praise must be awarded 
to all; yet these structures are often complex, and 
cumbersome in the extreme.^ It has been a stereo- 
typed speech for centuries with scholars to praise the 
beauty, sweetness, strength, and power of Greek and 
other ancient tongues. Allowance must be made for 
the affection a student has for his particular studj^, 
and the fact that the translator always finds many 
novelties, which, through the interesting method of 
substituting a word in one language for a correspond- 
ing word in another, seems to give that language 
greater expressive power ; but, if the subject be ma- 
turely considered, will an Englishman say that he 
has ideas which his language cannot express with all 
the beauty, force, and strength it has in his mind? Will 
a German, a Frenchman, an Italian, acknowledge this 
of their several tongues? It is said that the word 
corresponding to humanity is vainly sought for in 
Greek. Can it be supposed, that, if the idea existed, 
it could have remained unexpressed ? Linguists take 
it for granted that it did not, by the absence of the 
word. Equally vain w^ould be the search forewords 
expressive of the great modern inventions and scien- 
tific discoveries, which may be said to require a dis- 
tinct language of their own. 

Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, even the hieroglyphs of 
Egypt and the cuneiform inscriptions of Nineveh, can 
be translated into modern speech; but he who at- 
tempted to render a modern book into any of these 



102 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

would stumble at every sentence, and find a host 
of words for which the ancient speech had no syn- 
onymes. Why is this? Is it not simply because ,the 
human mind has expanded, and, to express its new 
thoughts, added to its vocabulary? Greek was per- 
fect for the Greeks, Chaldee for Chaldeans, modern 
speech for moderns ; but how fettered would be our 
minds were we compelled to express ourselves in any 
ancient tongue, even were it made our mother^s dialect ! 

The Norwegian colony which settled Iceland in the 
ninth century remained so stationary, that, at the end 
of four hundred years, they still spoke nearly pure 
old Norse, and were unable to converse with the 
people of their mother-country. The desolate island 
scenerv and isolated social life furnished not even as 
many ideas as the bleak mountains of Norway and 
the contact of nationalities. 

Germany, during the French wars, as nations al- 
ways do when thus stimulated, made rapid advances 
in thought and its expression. A colony sent just 
previously to the mountains of Pennsylvania, and by 
the war cut off from the mother-country, v^evQ found, 
only twenty-five years afterwards, to be speaking as 
Germans had done in the previous century. Their 
slight* contact with the English had fused many Eng- 
lish words into their speech, which they used to 
represent the new objects presented. They had ad- 
vanced in one direction, Germany in another. Pre- 
vious to the time of Cicero, the Latin tongue appears 
to have been in a state of rapid growth or change. 
Polybius says that the best-informed Romans could 
with difficulty read the treaties between Carthage 



ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. 103 

and Rome. Horace says he could not understand the 
Sahan Poems ; and from Quintilian we learn that the 
sacred hymns were scarcely understood by the priests. 

Latin was once the dialect of a small tribe, — one 
among many which inhabited Italy. It was more 
especially the langaiage of Eome. It was the polite 
tongue. It was not spoken by the plebeians; and, 
had they gained the mastery previous to the classic 
age, Latin would have been quite different. It was 
rapidly changing until Livius, Andronicus, Ennius, 
Cato, Lucretius, Cicero, and the Scipios, fixed it per- 
manently in literature, very much as Johnson, Shak- 
speare, and Milton fixed English speech in their 
writings. 

Such a condition is said to necessitate the decay of 
a lano-uao-e ; it rather is a landmark bv which the 
change or advance can be observed. Were it not for 
literature, we could not observe changes ; for literature 
itself is only a record of change. Missionaries at- 
tempted to write the language of the'Indians of Cen- 
tral America, and compiled a dictionary containing all 
the words they could gather. After only ten years, 
they found their work antiquated and useless ; so rap- 
idly had old words sunk into disuse, and new ones 
arisen. 

In the mountain ranges of the Irrawaddy Peninsula, 
multitudes of tribes speak different dialects: and Capt. 
Gorden collected in the neighborhood of Maniparu 
twelve dialects, some of which were not spoken by 
more than forty families ; and Brown says that tribes 
who have removed to neighboring valleys, after two 
or three generations, were unintelligible to those they 



104 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

left in their native valley. The Ostiac has degen- 
erated into so many dialects, that people dweUing not 
twenty miles apart are unintelligible to each other. 
It seems, according to Castren, that the barbarous 
tongues of the Buriates and Tungusic idioms around 
Njertschinsk, Siberia, are rapidly growing, and have 
surpassed the literary mongolian; having added ter- 
minations expressive of the persons of verbs, which 
the latter has not. 

Travellers never fail to experience profound surprise 
at the diversity of dialects in Africa. Moffat de- 
scribes how this diversity occurs. In the isolated vil- 
lages of the desert, the children are left in the care of 
the aged while the parents set oflf on long journeys, 
lasting for weeks or months. '^ The infant progeny, 
some of which are beginning to lisp, while others 
can just master a whole sentence, and those still fur- 
ther advanced, romping and playing together, the chil- 
dren of Nature, through their livelong day, become 
habituated to a language of their own. . . . Thus 
from this infant Babel proceeds a dialect of a host of 
mongrel words and phrases joined together without 
rule ; and, in the course of one generation, the entire 
character of the language is changed.'^ In the ab- 
sence of any method by which words are recorded, it 
will be readily seen, that, when these children mature, 
their language will be retained, while *the death of 
their parents will destroy thfe link which unites them 
to the past. 

The countless Indian tribes, from the Esquimaux of 
the Arctic Ocean to the Patagonian of Terre del Fuego, 
speak dialects unintelligible to each other. Here, as 



ORIGIN OP LANGUAGE. 105 

in Africa, language is in a state of constant flux, and 
words are evanescent symbols, enduring scarcely a 
single generation. 

Great as are the fluctuations in the vocabulary of 
languages, their grammatical structure is far more 
permanent ; and their relationship is established from 
this fact in a more permanent manner than possible 
by the mere correspondence of words. 

Comparative , philology is recent, scarcely dating 
back to the beginning of the present century ; but it 
has been cultivated with great assiduity, engaging 
the strongest intellects, and has made startling reve- 
lations in the new field it has opened. 

Its greatest achievement is the discovery of an an- 
cient central language from which the old historic 
tongues were derived, and placing its site in Central 
Asia. As the Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, 
Wallachian, and Rhastian dialects demonstrate that 
they were derived from a more ancient and common 
tongue, the Latin; so Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Zeud, 
Lithuranian, Sclavonic, Gothic, and Armenian, demon- 
strate, by their similarity of structure, their common 
derivation from an ancient* tongue. It would nol be 
difficult, were history destroyed, to prove that the Ro- 
mance languages were derived from a common source, 
nor more difficult to prove that the eight mentioned 
ancient tongues must have been derived from one com- 
mon ancient stock. 

Comparative philology has arrived at this grand re- 
sult by first ascertaining the laws which languages 
follow in their growth ; for, fortuitous as the coining of 
words may appear, their birth and death are governed 



106 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITr OF MAN. 

by inexorable law. By ascertaining the method by 
which words change, by phonetic substitution, it is 
able to trace words back to their roots which would 
not otherwise have been thus referred. To illustrate 
what is meant by roots, and to show the irresistible 
proofs they furnish of the common origin of tongues, 
we Avill take a word, and, after extracting its root, 
show how it unites distant languages. Respectable is 
a word derived from the Latin resped/xbilis. The lat- 
ter word is composed by affixing bills to the verb re- 
spectare; separate the prefix re, and spectare, a partici- 
ple from specere, to see, remains. This latter is com- 
pounded of the unchangeable spec, and changeable ere. 
The word can be reduced no farther ; and hence spec 
is the root of respectable, or rather the original first 
coifaed word from which all words containing it sprang, 
such as respect, respec-tive-ly, respite, de-spise, cir- 
cumspect, suspicion, and a host of others, all having 
their synonymes in the other branches of Assyrian 
speech. Spec, in Sanskrit, is spas ; in old high German, 
speka ; in Greek, skep. If a root is found in one Aryan 
tongue, it will be found in the others, having nearly 
the* same meaning, although the words which grow 
out of it may be very different, and have changed 
their meaning. 

The number of roots is small compared with the 
number of words. Sanskrit has but 1,706, according 
to the older grammars ; and recent students have re- 
duced the number to 500 by tracing words back to 
more primitive elements. Hebrew contains 500 ; Chi- 
nese, 450, multiplied by accents and intonations to 
1,263, producing a dictionary of 50,000 words. 



ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. 107 

With five hundred roots like spds, spec, a language 
like the English, containing one hundred thousand 
words, is readily composed. How few of these words 
are used ! There are laborers in England who are 
said not to use over three hundred words ; and a well- 
educated person seldom uses more than four thousand : 
eloquent speakers, not more than ten thousand; Shak- 
speare, the most original of English writers, fifteen 
thousand ; Milton, not more than eight thousand ; 
the Old Testament, five thousand six hundred and 
forty-two. The writers of the hieroglyphics, the sages 
of Egypt, wrote all their thoughts with two thousand 
and thirty words, according to the most recent re- 
search. 

The savage Indian of America, or the more barba- 
rous negro of Africa, cannot have a more extended vo- 
cabulary than the English laborer ; and consequently 
the substitution of new for old terms more quickly 
affects the character of their speech. 

Having shown the manner in which the roots, the 
fundamental elements of language, are determined, 
the proof they afford will be appreciated. These are 
briefly, — 

1. There existed a parent race in Central Asia. 2. 
That the Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Zend, Lithuranian, 
Sclavonic, Gothic, and Armenian were branches sent 
ofi* from this parent stock. 3. That this separation 
occurred while these ^peoples were in a semi-savage 
state. 

All these propositions are proved by tracing out 
the words held in common by these eight branches. 
Not only th^ir common origin, but the social advance- 



108 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 

ment they each had "Stained before they separated 
froni that parent stem, can be determined. Thus the 
names for ox, sheep, horse, goose, and dog, are the same 
in all, as are those for carts, yokes, and fixed habita- 
tions ; showing that, before their separation, all these 
animals had been domesticated, these implements 
been constructed, and the wandering savage began 
to learn the use of a fixed dwelling. The sameness of 
the words for numbers, and the lunar divisions of the 
year, show that they divided the year by the muta- 
tions of the moon, and counted to more than one hun- 
dred by the decimal system, and worshipped according 
to the system revealed in the Eig-Vedas. 

The seat of the parent dialect is traced towards 
the East, or to Central Asia, by the constant approach 
.the languages met within that direction make towards 
what may be considered a common stock, or towards 
the Sanskrit, its eldest offspring, and the departure 
made from it towards the west, where, in the extreme 
continental limits, the Celtic is so" remote, that for a 
long time it was considered as belonging to another 
and distinct group. 

The elements of the European languages are found 
in the Sanskrit, like remnants of one mother-tongue. 
They are more logical, more analytic, but not, as phi- 
lologists are wont to say of modern dialects, impover- 
ished. To suppose a language three thousand years 
old, expressing the ideas of that time, superior to a 
language embodying the thoughts, inventions, and 
magnificent discoveries of the present is too absurd 
to need refutation. 

There has been a tendency, and it is of German 



ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. 109 

origin, belonging to German thought and erudition, 
to elevate language above anatomy in the classifi- 
cation of the races of men ; in other words, to place 
more dependence on the relationship of the dialects of 
the races, than agreement of form, color, or structure. 
This may appear strange ; but it is found true, that, 
after a people have attained sufficient advancement to 
acquire what may comparatively be called a permanent 
speech, the essential elements of that speech are re- 
tained more tenaciously than the physical characteris- 
tics of the race. 

Words are the habiliments of the soul, and partake 
of its own indestructible qualities. The deeper the 
research is carried, the more certain it appears that 
structure of language is more permanent than race. 
Who for instance would classify the swart Hindoo and 
the florid German together? yet language places 
them near, very near, to each other ; and, having thus 
obtained the indication, or lead, and based himself 
on a true classification, the scholar finds ethnological 
reasons to support his linguistic conclusions. 

On the other hand, eminent men have wholly ig- 
nored the truthfulness of language in classification. 
Agassiz has given his name to this issue. He com- 
pares the brumming of the bears of Thibet, East 
Indies, Nepaul, Syria, Europe, Siberia, the Rocky 
Mountains, and the Andes, which, though of difierent 
species, utter the same sound ; the miawing of the cats 
of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America ; the gackling 
of gallinaceous birds, the song of the thrushes ; and 
concludes, ^^ Let any philologist study these facts, 
and learn at the same time how independent these 



/ 



7 

110 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

animals are from the other, which utter such closely 
allied systems of intonations, and, if he be not alto- 
gether blind to the significance of the analogies of 
Nature, he must begin himself to question the reli- 
ability of philological evidence as proving genetic 
origin.'' 

This conclusion merits repetition only from its 
source. It shows a want of appreciation of the 
principles which govern linguists. The sounds made 
by these orders of animals may be, and perhaps are, 
inherited from a primitive common ancestor, and point 
to such an origin ; but, be that as it may, the words 
which possibly agree by reason of anatomical similarity 
are discarded, and such only are used in comparison 
as are unmistakably free from such criticism. What 
is more, it is on grammatical structure the main reli- 
ance is placed ; for that is more enduring than the 
words it controls. 

That the eight great branches should, if isolated, 
each invent the decimal system, and call the numbers 
by similar names, would be beyond possibility.* That 
they should call any number by the same name would 
be impossible ; but that they should call a hundred 
alike, and not only that, but give similar names to 
their domestic animals, their dwellings and occupa- 
tions, is entirely beyond belief 

This proof, drawn from the most permanent pgCrt of 
language, is strengthened by the deeper structure of 
these tongues. The idiom employed by the peasant 
of Germany is repeated by the sanctified Brahmin in 
his devotions before the altar of Brahma. Tenaciously 
as the grammar is retained, it breaks before we reach 



ORIGIN OP LANGUAGE 111 

the lowest race, and in this, and in this alone, fails to 
be all that is required of a method of classification. 
Aided by history, in all the nationalities of the world 
it speaks unmistakably except of the Oriental negro 
and some fragments of tribes whom it fails to connect 
with the great stem which supports the other races. 

These lowest peoples were cast oflf before the fixa- 
tion of speech. We have seen how, among a certain 
grade of savages, language is in a constant flux; and 
a few years or a single year change its nature. Not 
until it attains to a degree of permanence, the result 
of superior advancement, can we look for the preser- 
vation of its distinctive marks. 

This stage was not attained, as the present classifi- 
cation indicates, until after the separation of the two 
great branches, — the Turanian and Aryan. 



CHAPTER IV. 
ORGANIC AND CLIMATIC CHANGES. 

Geographical Dispersion of Organic Beings in Relation to Man. — The 
Great Zoological Provinces first distinctly marked immediately antece- 
dent to the Introduction of Man. — Cause of. — Climate of the Earth 
during the Tertiary. — Disappearance of Climatic Distinctions in the 
Secondary Strata. — Zoological Provinces of the Earth, — the 
Arctic Realm, the Asiatic, the European, the African, the Australian, 
the Indian, the Polynesian. — Realms, how defined, how produced. — 
The Principles applicable to the Dispersion of Animals also applicable 
to the Dispersion of the Races of Men. 

The geographical distribution of organic forms, the 
subdivisions of the zoological provinces wherein pe- 
culiar types flourish to the exclusion of others, is first 
noticeable in the age immediately antecedent to^the 
introduction of man ; and it is a remarkable fact, that 
the zoological provinces of the earth immediately 
preceding the drift correspond with those of the 
present. The kangaroo, dinornisj &c., are not found in 
the Europeo-Asiatic province, but in the Austrahan ; 
the rhinoceros, hyena, lion, &c., belong to the African ; 
while the elephant, mammoth, rhinoceros, bear, hyena, 
hare, &c., roamed the European, the mastodon, mega- 
therium, megalonyx, glyptodon, mylodon, toxodon, 
macrauchema, and other extinct beings, inhabited- the 
A_merican continent ; the former pointing to species 
existing at present on the continent, the latter to 
forms more changed, but of the same type ; as the 

112 



ORGANIC AND CLIMATIC CHANGES. 113 

llama, cava, capabara, sloth, and armadillo. The monkey 
race indicates the same fact. Their fossils found in 
BraziHan caverns belong to the platyrrhine family, now 
pecnHar to South America. 

Holding firmly to the principle that organic forms 
in their introduction and maintenance are governed 
by law, and that they are progressive in development, 
we must search for the cause or causes of geographi- 
cal distribution in the laws which regulate the climate 
of the globe. If a uniform climate prevailed over the 
whole earth, one fauna and one flora only could exist. 
In proportion as climate changes shall we meet with, 
changes in the organic beings subjected to its influ- 
ence. 

Until the tertiary age, there w^as a nearly uniform 
climate. During the coal period, the lepidodendron, 
sigillaria, and palm flourished from the arctic to the 
antarctic circle ; and the fossil remains of saurian, 
denizens of warm seas, are scattered over the world, 
regardless of present climatic dictinctions. 

Until that age, paleontology records only extinct 
species, and generally extinct generce. Its records of 
each age are fragments of the preceding, as existing 
species strike their roots into the generas of the fossil 
world. Each age presents new species ; but they are 
closely related to the age immediately past. 

This differentiation of climate undoubtedly began 
in the earliest ages, but not until the tertiary had it 
become sufficient to produce marked results. As 
mountain chains gave shape to continental masses, as 
existing oceans, currents, islands, and the elevation 
of the land, became like the present, and the radiation 



114 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

of the earth's central heat allowed the influence of 
the sun to be locally felt, the climate of different por- 
tions of the earth began to assume their present 
character; and, with this change in climate, living 
beings became subject to local influences, and hence 
localized. 

At the closing age of the tertiary, the pleistocene, 
or DRIFT, three-fourths of the fossil shells are of ex- 
isting species J and most of the principal generae of 
mammals correspond to those of the same zoological 
provinces. 

In the age immediately preceding, the pliocene, 
one-third the species of moUusks, and nearly all the 
mammalia, are extinct. 

In the next lower and earlier age, about two-thirds 
of the shells are extinct ; and those that still exist 
must be looked for, not in adjoining seas, but in lati- 
tudes to the south, indicating a differentiation of cli- 
mate : in other words, the temperate zone was being 
established on the borders of the far-reaching but then 
contracting torrid. All the fossil mammals of that age 
are extinct. 

Here we may notice that the higher orders of all 
classes of animate existence are less able to withstand 
the vicissitudes of conditions' than the lower. They 
are products of favored circumstances, and modelled 
to meet certain requirements, and yield obedience 
more slowly to the new. It is not the gigantic and 
aberrant beings, as the margatherium, mylodcn, and 
mammoth, the megalasaums, masosaurus, and iguano- 
don, which survive, but shell-fish and zoophytes, 
coming up from the dark night of the silures to dwell 



ORGANIC AND CLIMATIC CHANGES 115 

in the sunshine of the present seas, scarcely modified 
in generic distinctions. Such instances are rare ; but 
they serve to show the tenacity with which the he- 
reditary powers of life preserv.e their identity against 
adverse conditions, and how slowly the forces of 
change operate. The little terrabratula has with- 
stood conditions which have swept the fleets of 
huge saurians from the ocean, levelled the coal forests 
of the coal measures, and buried in ruins the herds 
of mammoths and mastodons which roamed from the 
Yellow Sea, across both' continents, to the Pacific 
Ocean. 

In the EOCENE, the oldest portion of the tertiary, 
reposing directly above the secondary rocks, the re- 
lation between the present and ancient zoological 
provinces disappears. With few exceptions, all its 
shells are extinct ; and those still living are found in 
torrid latitudes. All its mammifers belong to extinct 
species, and the greater part to extinct generje, indi- 
cating changes so great as to obliterate radical char- 
acteristics. The fossil plants of its upper portion 
indicate a climate like that of Southern Europe and 
the Mediterranean, while those in its lowest show a 
tropical climate. 

As we pass down into the secondary strata, all 
climatic distinctions disappear. It is, then, of the 
deep sea, or shallow river or ocean, lake or estuary, 
that we observe these influences, and not of the more 
powerful force of temperature which now renders the 
poles masses of uninhabitable ice, the equator a burn- 
ing zone, and the intermediate spaces temperate re- 
gions. 



116 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

Having indicated the differentiation of climate, we 
are prepared to view with comprehending glance the 
distinguishing features of the zoological provinces 
into which this differentiation divides the surface of 
the earth. 

The broad field covered by the term ^^ climate " 
includes not only the thermal and meteorological 
conditions of a country, but all external circumstances 
brought to bear on living beings. It iacludes, eveii 
in meteorological sense, the configuration and eleva- 
tion of the land; as it is evident that climate is 
intimately related to physical geography, or the 
elevation and depression of continents and islands, 
mountains and valleys, currents in air and ocean, 
and all the diversified aspects assumed by the physi- 
cal world. 

Beginning with an all-enveloping ocean studded 
with islands, and a high uniform temperature arising 
from the internal heat of the earth, as mountains were 
pushed upwards, and continents showed their broad 
backs above the sea, arresting the flow of currents in 
the sea and atmosphere ; as the lands assumed their 
present aspect, the provinces of life were defined 
more and more clearly, until, by loss of internal heat, 
the thermal conditions depended entirely on the sun's 
rays : thus the globe was divided into unchanging 
zones of temperature, and the universal province be- 
came subdivided, as at present, at nearly the same 
time with the appearance of existing species of ani- 
mals and of man. 

Of these provinces, we shall first consider the 
Arctic Realm. This extends from the North Pole, 



ORGANIC AND CLIMATIC CHANGES. 117 

irregularly beyond the Arctic Circle, to the northern 
limits of forests. It is characterized by the uniform- 
ity with which its animals and plants are distributed. 
It is remarkable that plants become dwarfed, stunted, 
and wholly disappear, while animal life flourishes in 
vigor, and pushes its most gigantic forms far beyond 
into the Frozen Sea. Some graminiferous plants, 
mosses and lichens, serve as a scanty pasture to the 
ruminants and rodents. Plowering plants are of few 
species ; but some of them make up in number of in- 
dividuals the deficiency of kinds, often when in bloom 
resembling drifts of snow. A month is suflScient for 
them to mature their seeds, which feed a few small 
birds. The gull, and other sea-side feeders, prey on 
the immense swarms of fish, or marine plants and in- 
fusoria. Qountless flocks of geese, ducks, petrels, pen- 
guins, cormorants, and gulls larger than eagles, hover 
over the coast and islands. The mammals are the white 
bear, musk-ox, reindeer, white fox, polar hare, lemming, 
walrus, cachalot, seal, norwal, and whale. Fishes are 
numerous, and the lower order of worms, mollusks, 
echin-oderms, and medusae, are well represented ; but 
not a single reptile dwells in this zone. Its flora is 
devoid of all plants used as food by civilized man ; and 
its dwarfed races of men who dwell on the borders of 
the frozen ocean are compelled toJive on an almost ex- 
clusive flesh diet, relieved only by a miserable lichen, 
the tripe-de-roche. They have only two domestic 
animals: in the east, the reindeer ; in the west, the dog. 
This realm is distinguished by the sharpness of its 
outline. South of it, lies first the American Realm, 
characterized by the wide difiusion of its species, a 



118 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

fact referable to the mountain-chain extending from 
the Arctic Circle to Patagonia, furnishing a means 
of transit. Thus we find many ancient plants and 
animals common to both North and South America. 

Tropical America does not possess the luxuriance 
of species of Africa. Its largest pachyderms are in- 
significant, and its ruminants small in comparison. 
The tapir and peccary represent the former ; the llama 
and alpaca, the latter. Species rivalling the elephant 
of Africa flourished at a recent period, as the masto- 
don, megatherium, &c. ; but they are extinct, with the 
horse it once possessed. It approaches Australia in 
possessing marsupials ; but its ostriches are diff'erent 
generically from those of that continent, and its 
monkeys are not generically represented in Africa. 

The next realm, bordering the Arctic, and almost 
joining the American, is the Asiatic, remarkable for 
being the original home of the progenitors of the 
domestic horse, ox, sheep, and goat. It possesses the 
musk-deer, the bear, argali, yak, the bactrian camel, 
the wild horse and ass, and numberless other forms. 
It extends from the Arctic Circle to the Himalaya, 
from the Pacific to the borders of Europe, and may be 
considered as one vast and greatly elevated table- 
land. Its exposure to the unmitigated Arctic blasts 
depresses its temperature. At a recent geological date, 
probably since the advent of man, the elephant and 
rhinoceros roamed over the now inhospitable steppes 
of Siberia to ttie mouth of the- Lena on the Frozen 
Ocean. 

The European Realm extends from the Arctic 
Circle to the deserts of Sahara, from the western 



ORGANIC AND CLIMATIC CHANGES. 119 

boundaries of Asia to the Atlantic. Its representa- 
tive animals are the bear, stag, antelope, goat, aurochs, 
and wolf. 

The African Realm, embracing the whole of the 
African continent, except a narrow border along the 
Mediterranean, possesses one of the highest types of 
the animal kingdom, as well as the largest, — the chim- 
panzee {troglodytes niger), the elephant, rhinoceros, 
hippopotamus, giraffe, lion, tiger, leopard, and innu- 
merable antelopes and deer, and its representative 
species. 

The Australian Realm embraces all that conti- 
nent, and is entirely unique : it is exclusively repre- 
sented by marsupials, as the opossum and kangaroo. 

The Indian Realm embraces all Asia south of the 
Himalaya, and the many islands lying between Aus- 
tralia and Hindostan. Its anipaals are the elephant, 
rhinoceros, tapir, stag, and the highest of animals, 
the pithecus satyrus, or orang outang. 

The .Polynesian Realm embraces the islands scat- 
tered throughout the Pacifier Ocean, and is character- 
ized more by its races of men than animals. It is 
entirely fragmentary, and its fragments are set in a 
wide ocean, often hundreds of miles apart. 

The Arctic Realm is limited on its southern border 
by the increasing temperature. Its fauna, , being 
adapted to withstand a vigorous temperature, are dis- 
qualified for sustaining heat : even when the sun for 
a few weeks melts the ice and snow from the southern 
faces of the hills, and brown lichens start in the 
warmest nooks, oppressed by the heat, its inhabitants 
crowd towards the pole. The whale loves the coldest 



120 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

bays of icebergs, ^and to bathe in water far below 
freezing. The sea of the tropics would be to it an 
impassable sea of fire. Surrounded by a coat of blub- 
ber a foot or more in thickness, which, at the same 
time, retains and supplies heat, it seems constantly 
overstocked with caloric, in a high fever which nothing 
but ice can satisfy. The seal and the walrus are pro- 
tected in like manner, and the bear and musk-ox are 
clad in thickest fur. 

The Antarctic Realm is scarcely known : as it has 
no land except what is buried beneath perpetual ice, 
its fauna is exclusively of the sea. The whale, seal, 
and penguin are its characteristic forms ; but these 
are of different species from those of the Arctic. The 
whale cannot cross the tropic, and hence its diffusion 
must have occurred previous to the present differen- 
tiation of climate. The American Realm is, except 
beyond the Arctic Circle, cut off by vast oceanic ex- 
panses from all others. The European Realm is iso- 
lated on the west by an ocean, on the east by seas 
and mountains, on the south by the Saharian wastes. 
The African and Australian are isolated by a sur- 
rounding oceau. The Asiatic Realm has an ocean 
north and east, and the almost impassable Himalaya 
on the south. Having thus briefly surveyed the 
realms into which the earth is divided by barriers 
now existing, we are enabled to understand how this 
differentiation has been attained. If we glance at a 
geological map, we shall see that the land during the 
earlier tertiary did not have its present form. 

The salient features existed; mountain ridges 
showed their sharp outlines from the sea, anticipating 



ORGANIC AND CLIMATIC CHANGES. 121 

the future form of the continents : but, even so late, 
the character of the land was essentially insular. Pro- 
jecting masses, since submerged, brought the Old and 
New Worlds into close relationship. This, in con- 
nection with a uniform temperature, favored the wide 
distribution of species. 

With these realms, as yet faintly defined, but 
rapidly developing their peculiarities, see how it 
would be with the diversified species submitted to 
their agency. Admitting that living beings are re- 
sultants of the conditions which originate and surround 
them, they of course assume forms adapted to those 
conditions. In the strife for existence, those individ- 
uals, species, or generge, which cannot conform, inevita- 
bly perish. Wide seas, swift currents, and mountain 
barriers, would separate the realms of life. These 
were introduced slowly. There was opportunity for 
dissemination and interblending. Then, when thor- 
oughly isolated, each species followed the direction 
imparted by its parentage, modified by the new cir- 
cumstances. Many perish; for they are unyielding, 
or incapable of mastering more vigorous antagonists. 
Others prosper, and crowd out less plastic forms. But 
here I take all this for granted, and apply it to the 
geographical distribution of species in their relation 
to that of mankind.. 

The bear of the Rocky Mountains, the black bear 
of America, the brown bear of Europe and Asia, the 
white bear of the Arctic, are so intimately related, 
that the most superficial observer at once pronounces- 
them all bears ; yet they differ much more in external 
appearance than anatomical structure. It is difficult 



122 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

for the anatomist to distinguish between their skele- 
tons. 

The puma, and fossil lion of America, the tiger, 
lion, and leopard of Africa, all present the same uni- 
formity. Cuvier confessed himself unable to distin- 
guish a skull of a lion from that of a tiger. The fossil 
elephant of America and the existing Asiatic species 
are very similar. The wolf of America and that of 
Europe cannot be distinguished by their skulls. This 
similarity extends to all generae of animals. It shows 
a bond of union which cannot be satisfactorily ac- 
counted for otherwise than by referring families so 
related to a common parentage. If we suppose the 
American fauna to have originated on American soil, 
and the European on European, it would be inexplica- 
ble how the bear, wolf, horse (fossil), the elephant 
(fossil), lion (fossil), and innumerable other types, 
should, in countries so remote, surrounded by such 
diverse conditions, arrive at identical developments. 
The occurrence of one instance would be remarkable, 
that of hundreds incomprehensible. That America 
and Europe each possess a bear, the structures of 
which cannot be distinguished, together with number- 
less other instances of conformity, as in deer, wolves, 
foxes, &c., points to an anterior time when both held 
a fauna in common. Diversity of conditions has pro- 
duced specific changes, which are scarcely more than 
change of color. 

It is evident that any theory which accounts for the 
dispersion of the family of bears or wolves or deer 
in a partial measure is applicable to the diffusion of 
the races of men. It appears that the dispersion, or 



ORGANIC AND CLIMATIC CHANGES. 123 

rather specific change, of the latter began about the 
same time with the former, and must, consequently, 
have been governed by the same causes. 

When we cast every vestige of miracle from 
science, the justness of this conclusion will be ap- 
parent. 



CHAPTER V. 
THE UNITY OF MANKIND. 

Definition of Species. — Points of Agreement of all the Races of Men. — Lon- 
gevity. — Contagious Diseases. — Color of Skin. — Color of Eyes and 
Hair. — Texture of Hair. — Similar Variations observed in Animals. — 
Albinos. — Anatomical Comparison of the Races. — Measurements and 
Comparison of Skulls of. — Hybridity. — Egyptian Records. — Conclu- 
sions. 

That what are called the races or types of man- 
kind belonged to one species is supposed to be proved 
by their conforming to the tests employed to define 
species. Species has been defined as '^ a primordial 
organic form/' and the definition widely received ; 
but it is a problem to solve what is meant by the 
word '' primordial^ According to the most recent 
views of naturalists, there are no ^^ primordial '^ forms. 
The learned Pritchard defines species : '* It includes 
only the following conditions ; namely, separate origin 
and distinction of race, evinced by the constant trans- 
mission of some characteristic peculiarity of organiza- 
tion. Permanent varieties are those, which, having 
once taken place, continue 'to be propagated in the 
breed in perpetuity. The fact of their origination 
must he known by observation or inference ; since, the 
proof of this fact being defective, it is more philo- 
sophical to consider characters which are perpetual 
as specific or original." 

124 



THE UNITY OF MANKIND. 125 

From this definition of species, it will be seen that 
much difficulty invests the subject. Varieties which 
originated beyond the reach of history must be con- 
sidered as species ; while an equal amount of varia- 
tion, when known to have occurred, creates, not 
species, but varieties. 

But there are certain tests which can be applied 
that obviates the necessity of historic data. It has 
been found that the individuals of a species of animals 
agree in longevity, in the regularity of periodic 
changes in their organism, in the diseases (especially 
contagious) to which they are liable ; and that species 
remotely allied will not produce oJffspring, and, when 
nearly allied, their ofispring are sterile. 

As will be shown, all races of men conform to the 
requirements of these tests, and must be classed as 
permanent varieties. But, as wo shall have occasion 
to show hereafter, the distinctions are as great as 
those between the members of the bear, the dog, or 
the cat families, which most naturalists consider quite 
sufficient to establish specific relations. As was in- 
timated in a previous chapter, the intimate relation 
of the members of these families indicates a common 
origin equally as much as the same relation existing 
between the races of men. To the latter we for the 
present will confine our attention. 

Taking into consideration the great variation in 
the conditions of life of the various nationalities of the 
world, some frozen in and confined to their ice huts 
half the year, while others are scorched beneath the 
tropics, and others still enjoy every intermediate 
grade of climate from lofty and cold mountain-sides to 



126 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

warm valleys, from arid deserts to grassy steppes, it is 
notable that all attain an almost equal longevity. Some 
writers have supposed that the difference in length 
of life was a distinctive race-mark ; but more careful 
investigation shows, that, among all races, individuals 
occasionally attain a great age, and that an octogena- 
rian is almost equally rare among all. 

Savage nations are shorter lived than civilized, — a 
necessary consequence of their mode of life, and not 
referable to any distinction of race. The European 
in the middle ages was quite aa short-lived. Dr. 
Winterbottom speaks of the inhabitants of Guinea as^ 
short-lived, and becoming really old at forty-five ; but 
the descendants of these short-lived, because improvi- 
dent and savage negroes, in the Southern States, 
where they enjoy many of the comforts of civiliza- 
tion, are among the longest-lived people in the world. 
Negroes in the West Indies frequently attain the age 
of one hundred, and sometimes one hundred and 
twenty. 

The Indians have been said to be short-lived, and 
to mature and decay early ; but they often reach the 
age of ninety and one hundred years. The Lapland- 
ers, situated in the extreme north of Europe, are 
subjected to a rigorous climate, and it is certain that 
they early attain maturity : they often reach eighty, 
ninet}^, and one hundred years. In cold climates and 
in warm, the age of puberty is attained earlier than 
in temperate regions, heat and cold producing the 
same effect. The same may be said of cities over 
the country, as the more stimulating diet, and asso- 
ciations of the former, have a strong influence. But 



THE UNITY OF MANKIND. 127 

this period differs but a few years at most, and there 
is as much variation in any one race as there is be- 
tween those the most remote. 

Neither longevity, nor the period of puberty, fur- 
nishes any marks of distinction of race. 

If we except malarious influences, to which the 
African seems acclimated, the different races of men 
are equally effected by contagious diseases. There 
are some of these diseases that are communicated by 
all warm-blooded animals to each other, as hydropho- 
bia : but most such diseases are chiefly confined to 
the species with which they originate. The most 
contagious disease among sheep will not extend to 
oxen or swine ; nor will such as the pneumonia ex- 
tend to horses, although fatal to oxen. Plants show 
the same quality, — diseases like the yellows in 
peaches, or black-knot in plums, extending only to 
those species. 

Each species has its own peculiar diseases, which 
are readily transmitted to the members of the species, 
but wholly incommunicable to members of other 
species. 

In this manner, all the races of man are shown to 
belong to one family; for the contagious diseases 
which affect them^do not reach downward, even to the 
apes, and have a^wide margin from all other animals, 
while they are all similarly affected by the same 
epidemic or contagion, although some races not as 
severely as others. Thus the small-pox has spread 
from the Arctic Ocean to the circumference of 
Africa, and is equally fatal to the African and the 
Kamskatdale, all races having been alike scourged. 



128 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

The Asiatic cholera, the rubeolas, the plague, and syph- 
ilis, spare no race. 

Pritchard informs us that the yaws is not peculiar 
to Africans, but is communicable to Europeans. 

The elephantiasis prevails among the inhabitants of 
particular countries, and is produced by peculiarity 
of food and climate ; but, when the system is thus 
prepared, it is no respecter of race. It is common 
with the negroes of Guinea, spread into Java in 1661, 
and attacks Mongolians and Tartars. 

When Europeans visit tropical Africa, they usually 
have fevers produced by malaria, from which the 
negro population have been erroneously thought to be 
exempt. The negro has the fevers remittent and inter- 
mittent but rarely and lightly ; but the negroes who 
emigrated from the Northern United States to Sierra 
Leone suffered much -more from these fevers. The 
Indian, when carried to a tropical climate, suffers from 
the same malarious diseases as the whites. The Az- 
tecs are said to have suffered from what is supposed 
to have been the yellow fever. 

These diseases affect all races, black, yellow, red, 
and w^hite, but some more than others. The negro 
cannot withstand diseases which depress vitality, like 
the plague, cholera, small-pox, or typhoid, or ^ny 
morbific poison, except malaria. They are predisposed 
to consumption when living in a cold climate, and are 
more subject than the whites to inflammatory diseases, 
and will not bear depletion. 

The Semite is peculiarly liable to ophthalmia and 
cutaneous diseases, such as leprosy. 

Individual instances occur of Europeans being quite 



THE UNITY OF MANKIND. 129 

as exempt from fevers, dysentery, and other effects of 
tropical malaria, as the native Africans; and consump- 
tion is as certainly fatal to the white as to the black. 

The American Indian will endure a severity of cold 
almost incredible; but arctic explorers have shown 
that whites could endure a winter in the arctic zone 
quite as well. 

That the African is a child of the tropics, and the 
white of the temperate zone, is evident ; but they are 
Hot removed sufficiently by this fact to subject them 
to diflFerent diseases. 

It may be stated as a general rule, without exception, 
that any disease contagious among whites will be so 
among blacks or red Indians. As such diseases go no 
further than man, and as among animals each disease 
is confined to a species, how avoid concluding that 
all the races of men belong to a common family ? 

The color of the skin is so different, varying from 
an almost pure white through yellow and red to jetty 
black, that it has been used as an unequivocal race- 
mark ; but there are so many intermediate gradations 
between these, that, by the best naturalists, they are 
considered of little value. The color of the skin de- 
pends on the pigment excreted from the blood, and 
interposed between the cutis and cuticle. This seems 
to be excreted from the surface of the cutis, and, like 
the cuticle, is extravascular. It is as thick as the 
cuticle in the negro, and, by nice manipulation, can be 
detached as a separate membrane. It was an old idea 
that the condition of the liver affected the color of 
the skin, and this idea has been revived by the emi- 
nent and acute Draper. The torpor of the liver, 



130 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 

induced by a hot climate, throws the burden of excret- 
ing carbon on the skin, and hence the excreted deposit 
beneath the cuticle. There may be truth in this; but 
there are other differences of race accompanying 
change of color which remain unaccounted for. 

According to dissections made by Soemmerring and 
Hunter, the texture of this intermediate lamella be- 
tween the cutis and cuticle exists in the fairest of 
Europeans ; but the pigment is not deposited, and hence 
the color depends on the transparency of the skin 
revealing the blood in the capillaries beneath. From 
white to black, every conceivable shade is produced 
by the amount of coloring-matter deposited in thist 
lamella or rete-mucosum. 

From the jetty African, we pass, by insensible de- 
grees, to the brunette of Southern Europe. Exposure 
to the sun of dark-haired but fair-skinned Spaniards 
makes them as brown as Arabs or Berbers. The 
women of swarthy races, when excluded from the 
sun, are much whiter than the men. The stimulus of 
light and heat is required to produce the secretion. 
The same process takes place in whites exposed to 
the weather, as sailors and voyagers, but to a limited 
extent; and, as soon as the exposure ceases, the secre- 
tion is arrested, and the natural color returns. 

The color of the eyes and hair corresponds usually 
to the color of the skin. The choroid or iris of the 
eye is colored by a pigment secreted from the surface 
of the choroid, and passes through the various shades 
of blue, gray, brown, and black. Light or blue eyes 
usually accompany a fair, and dark eyes a dark com- 
plexion. This is not as unvarying as the color of the 



THE UNITY OF MANKIND. 131 

hair. The florid complexion is accompanied by flaxen 
or red hair ; and the color of skin accompanying black 
hair is never so light as that associated with flaxen 
hair. The deposition of coloring-matter in the hair 
occurs by a similar and related process to that which 
colors the skin. The hairs grow from buljbs situated 
just beneath the cuticle. The hairs are enveloped in 
a sheath which passes through the skin to the surface. 
Each hair is formed by an external, transparent, horny 
sheath, similar in substance to the nails, and an internal 
pith in which the color of the hair resides. This pith 
must possess a limited vascular motion, as it under- 
goes rapid changes of color in disease, or strong mental 
excitement : a few days or ^hours sometimes serving 
to change the color of the hair to snowy 'white. Un- 
less there was circulation in the hair, this could not 
occur, nor could the color change with age. 

The structure of hair is the same in all races of men 
and in animals ; nor does the structure of wool diff*er 
essentially from that of hair ; both grow from similar 
bulbs. Wool issues from smaller bulbs, and is usually 
waved, so as to possess the property of matting. 
What has been styled ^^ wool '' of Africans is true hair, 
but is wavy. It is not always short, but in certain 
papua tribes grows so long as to be brushed out into 
a periwig three feet across. Some negro tribes have 
curled hair, not crisp. 

Europeans have curled hair; and, if we pass in a 
direct line from Egypt to the Cape of Good Hope, we 
shall find every variety of hair from the straight to 
the most crisp. 

The same variations are seen in animals. Varieties 



132 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

of swine are white, red, and black, and covered with 
stout bristles, and with crisped hair, or wool. Some 
varieties of sheep and goats are covered with coarse 
hair, others with wool. When sheep of the finest 
grade of wool are transferred to a warmer climate, in 
a few generations they become covered with coarse 
hair. The common goat is covered with rough hair ; 
but the Angora goat is covered with long silky hairs 
of great length and snowy whiteness, and the Cash- 
mere goat produces a fibre of extreme fineness, from 
which the Cashmere shawls are made. 

Some varieties of dog are covered by a thick wool. 

All travellers have observed that the color of the 
individuals of barbarous tribes is not uniform. This 
is easily explained by calling such tribes " mixed,'' 
but not satisfactorily. * The fact is too universal to 
allow of such interpretations. It is rather because 
varieties arise as it were spontaneously, as they are 
seen to do among animals. 

One of the widest departures is made by albinos, 
or " white negroes." Their blanched color may result 
from disease, but, if so, is congenital, and capable of 
hereditary transmission. There have been many cases 
of albinos among the slaves in the Southern States, 
and they are of frequent occurrence in Africa. What- 
ever the cause in man, the same affects animals. In 
the albino negro, the hair is white, and the eyes pink. 
There is a complete absence of the pigment which 
gives the black color to the negro. 

Domestic species of animals often give birth spo- 
radically to albinos. The farmer is often surprised to 
see cats, dogs, rabbits, sheep, hogs, goats, and horses, 



THE UNITY OP MANKIND. 133 

give birth to white offspring, while they are of an 
opposite color. There is scarcely a species of wild 
animal or bird, but it has been recorded that snowy- 
white individuals have been seen, as the monkey, 
squirrel, marten, buffalo, camel, elephant, rhinoceros, 
deer, badger, beaver, crows, blackbirds, canaries, 
fowls, and so on to the end. 

Among domestic species, varieties often as suddenly 
spring up of a jetty black ; and instances occur of 
intermediate colors. Sheep are white, red, and black ; 
and cats and dogs sport in an endless variety of color, 
as do horses and cattle. 

With animals as with man, the skin and hair are 
strictly correlated or dependent, the latter being al- 
ways of the color of the former ; and, when spotted, 
the skin from which the white, red, or black hairs 
* grow, is of corresponding color. 

In structure there exist no considerable variations. 
The foramen magnum in Africans is placed more for- 
ward of the spinal column than in Europeans, in this 
respect approaching the apes. The ribs are heavier 
and more arched; the pelvic bones narrower and 
thinner ; the arms are longer, as are the fingers and 
toes ; the bones of the leg are bent outward, so that 
the knees stand farther apart; the calves of the leg are 
thin and high, the feet are flat and broad, the hands 
thin, and fingers flexible. All these departures of 
the African from the European are made toward the 
-anthropoid apes ; but they are not any greater than is 
made by individual Europeans. It is easy to find 
individuals of the latter with arms as long as the 
African, with as thin hanSs, as long and flexible fin- 



134 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN, 

gers, with as small and high calves to his legs, as flat 
feet. On the other hand, no more difficulty is expe- 
rienced in finding negroes with as short arms as 
Europeans. 

These comparisons might be extended to all races 
with similar results. None of these superficial char- 
acters are sufficiently permanent or defined to be 
valuable as positive race-marks. All the rades flow 
together at their borders ; and it is at the centre, and 
not at the margins, of their broad streams, that dis- 
tinctions are discernible. 

I will present another point of agreement of races 
which lies at the foundation of intellectual and 
moral development. The skull, as it contains the 
organ of mind, the brain, and by its form indicates 
that of the enclosed organ, and by its capacity the 
size of that organ, is of vital consideration. On , 
the skull and teeth the comparative anatomist bases 
distinctions of species, and he finds no marks as per- 
manent or reliable. Between the teeth of the races 
of men there is no essential difference. Those of 
Egyptian mummies are broader than those of Eu- 
ropeans, but no broader than may be readily found 
among the latter. Instances of double front teeth, 
and corresponding large molars, are by no means rare. 
Even this, the most remarkable distinction, is far from 
being sufficient to establish a specific distinction. 
From measurements made of the celebrated and ex- 
tensive Mortonian collection of skulls, the following 
results have been obtained : — 

Of 38 skulls of the Teutonic Family, the internal 
capacity of the largest was 114 inches ; of the small- 



THE UNITY OF MANKIND. 135 

est 65. Of 9 skulls of the Tchudic family, of the 
largest was 112.5; of the smallest, 81.5. Of 6 Keltic, 
of the largest, 97 ; of the smallest, 78. Of 3 Arabic 
skulls, of the largest, 98 ; of the smallest, 84. Of 18 
Fellahs, of the largest, 96 ; of the smallest, 66. Of 10 
Chinese skulls, of the largest, 98; of the smallest, 70. 
Of 20 Malay skulls, of the largest, 97 ; of the smallest, 

68. Of 177 skulls of the ancient Peruvians and Mexi- 
cans, the largest, 101 ; the smallest, 58. Of 164 skulls 
of American Indians, of the largest, 104; the smallest, 

69. Of 90 negro skulls of various tribes, of the lar- 
gest, 99 ; of the smallest, 68. 

The smallest capacity, 53, is observed in the an- 
cient Peruvians, and the largest, 114, in the Teutonic 
Family. Here is a wide difference, one brain being 
more than twice as large as the other. But the lar- 
gest Peruvian skull has a capacity of 101; while the 
smallest Teuton has a capacity of 65, or a trifle more 
than half the former. The smallest negro skull has 
a capacity of 63, and the largest Tchudic 112.5, or 
almost twice as much ; but the smallest Tchudic has 
but 81.5, while the largest negro has 99. These 
comparisons will suggest others, and it will be found 
that they yield like results when applied between 
all the families of mankind. There is as much varia- 
tion in the capacity of skull, that is, size of brain, in 
any one race, as exists between the various races. 

It has been said that animals of different species 
will not propagate ; or, if they do, their offspring are 
unprolific. The mule offspring of the horse and ass 
is a familiar example. Until recently, it has never 
been disputed that all races of men were equally pro- 



136 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

lific when mingled together. The example of Eng- 
land, created out of different nations, and of the 
United States, made up of fragments of almost every 
race on the earth, are standing examples of the per- 
fect blending of races. I say, until recently ; for a 
class of writers have allied themselves, and prostituted 
science to the slave-power, and endeavored to prove 
that the offspring of the negro and w^hite, after a few 
generations, inevitably perishes, showing, they think, 
a weakened constitution, or an imperfect power of 
propagation, the result of hybridity. Were it not for 
the counter facts which show the mulatto to be as long- 
lived and able to rear as large families as negroes or 
whites, it might be well asked if species must not be 
nearly allied to the closely related varieties, if^the 
effect of hybridity on their offspring could escape the 
notice of all the world until wanted to prove the in- 
feriority of the negro slave. 

The statement, so often produced, that the Austra- 
lian women are sterile to the males of their own race, 
after producing by Europeans, was first made by two 
credulous travellers, since repeatedly contradicted, 
but recently revived by pretenders to scientific 
knowledge. 

It is unessential whether races be called species, or 
permanent varieties, or simply varieties: what I desire 
is to show the relationship of all races or varieties to be 
suificiently intimate to prove their common parentage. 
The facts of this chapter point only to such a con- 
clusion. The same tests have been applied as are 
employed to fi^ the position of species of animals, and 
their requirements have been fully complied with. 



THE UNITY OF MANKIND^ 137 

In duration of life, and the periodical functions of 
the system; in predisposition to contagious and epi- 
demical diseases ; in size and structure ; in color of 
skin and hair; in capacity of skull, and in perfect 
prolificacy, inter se, — the races of men differ no more 
than species of any other genus of animals : they differ 
as much, and in precisely the same manner. They 
differ as the white bear differs from the brown, as the 
latter from the black, as the black from the bear of 
Europe, as the tiger differs from the lion, the lion 
from the panther or leopard. The difference is not 
m kind, but in degree. 

It is thus seen that the races, varieties, types, or 
species of mankind are associated into one family, 
bound together by the ties of a common origin. 

The objection is urged against this unity of parent- 
age, that the delineations of races on the walls of 
Egyptian temples, made at least four thousand years 
ago, and probably nearer six thousand, preserve the 
expression of each, as well as the artists' crude 
method would allow, as they appear at present. The 
Copt, the Semite, the African, can all be perfectly 
identified. If, for four thousand or six thousand years, 
there has been no perceptible change, urges a certain 
school of ethnologists, are not the races permanent? 
and how did they ever originate from one another ? 
Granting the Mosaic chronology to be correct, it is 
evident that the Egyptian paintings show a diversity 
which cannot be reconciled with a common origin. But 
science has been completely severed from theology. 
It has been shown that six thousand years is but a 
day since man was introduced. Hence a conclusion 



138 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 

drawn from so short a period is untrustworthy, were 
the pictures known to be absolutely faithful. 

From the known caricatures they have left, and 
their conventional, stereotyped manner, reliance can- 
not be placed in their outlines, sufficient to yield 
a scientific conclusion that there has been no change. 
All that can be said is, that they preserve the general 
expression of each race. Their pictures inform us of 
this sufficiently well, so as not to need explanation. 

It so happens that the races depicted, the Semite 
and African, are the ones which have changed the 
least. They belong to the stationary races. It is 
probable that a picture of a Chinese three thousand 
years ago would be good for a Chinese to-day. The 
great change which yields the civilization of the 
present belongs to races wholly unknown to the 
Egyptians. That these have changed, and are daily 
changing, no observer can deny. 



CHAPTER VI. 

RELATION OF CONTINENTAL FORMS 

TOMAN. 

Bacon's Observation. — Analogies between the Continents. — Typical Con- 
tinental Form. — The Three Double Worlds. — Benefits conferred on 
Man by Contour of the Land. — Influence of Mountain Chains, and of 
Large Bodies of Water. — What is Acclimation V — Application of fore- 
going Principles. 

Bacon iSrst observed that the two worlds, the Old 
and the New, while they widened into broad masses 
towards the north, narrowed and terminated in points 
towards the Antarctic Ocean. The learned companion 
of Capt. Cook, Foster, in his second circumnavigation 
of the globe, developed this observation into three 
generalizations on the structure of continents. 

The first, that the southern points of all the con- 
tinents are- mountainous. These are termini of chains 
radiating from the interior, and abruptly broken ofi* at 
the shores of the ocean. Thus America terminates 
in the rocky heights of Cape Horn, where the Andes, 
already broken, fall in high cliffs into the Antarctic 
Ocean; Africa, in the plateaux of table - mountains ; 
Asia, in the peninsula of the Deccan, where the giant 
Ghauts form the rocky Cape Comorin ; lastly, Aus- 
tralia presents the same character at Cape South-east 
of Tasmania. 

139 



140 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

A second analogy is, that the continents directly 
east of these southern extremities have a large island 
or group. East of Cape Horn are the Falklands ; 
of Cape of Good Hope, Madagascar . and volcanic 
islands ; of the Deccan, Ceylon ; of Australia, New 
Zealand. 

A third resemblance is in configuration. On the 
western side of all of them, their flanks are, as it 
were, hollowed into a vast gulf. This inflection is 
indicated in America by the position of Arica at the 
foot of the high Cordilleras in Bolivia, in Africa by 
the Gulf of Cambay and the Indo-Persian Sea, in 
Australia by the Gulf of Nuyts. 

It will be observed by a glance at the map of the 
world that all the masses of land widen as they ex- 
tend northward. This is not only true of the princi- 
pal masses, but of the smallest. Greenland, Califor- 
nia, Florida, in the New World ; Italy, Spain, Scandi- 
navia, Greece, the two Indies, Corea, Kamtschatka, in 
the Old, — point southward, but conform to the above 
statement. Steflfens brings to view that the land is 
grouped in three great masses, or double worlds, com- 
posed of two parts united by an isthmus or chain of 
islands, on one side of which is found an archipelago, 
and on the other side a peninsula. 

The Americas are the type of this arrangement. 
The two parts. North and South America, are of 
about equal size, of similar form ; and the Isthmus of 
Panama which unites them is perfect. On the east is 
the archipelago of the Antilles; on the west, the penin- 
sula of California. 

The two other double worlds are less perfectly de- 



RELATION OF CONTINENTAL FORMS TO MAN. 141 

fined, and symmetrical. Their component continents 
are of unequal size, and, as it were, turned back to 
back. They are united along the line of the Cauca- 
sus down to the Persian Gulf Of the western double 
world. Europe, a part of Western Asia, and Arabia, 
are the northern part, united by the Isthmus of Suez 
with Africa, the southern counterpart. The western 
archipelago is Greece, the peninsula is Arabia. The 
eastern double world, Asia and Australia, approaches 
nearer the type. Asia is its northern part; the isth- 
mus is broken into a chain of islands uniting it with 
Australia, the southern part: it possesses the great 
archipelagos of Borneo, Moluccas, and Celebes, and a 
peninsula, India, of vast extent. 

Another aspect of configuration is of momentous 
consequence. The massing of land into great bodies 
is not favorable to civilization. Africa is the most 
solid of the continents, Europe the most intersected 
by the sea. The facilities of commerce, the variety 
of scenery, the stimulus imparted by natural divisions 
into nationalities, are broad themes, based not so much 
on the constitution of man as on that of the globe. 

Such are a few leading resemblances between the 
great continents. In respect to the globe, other char- 
acters are equally well defined. A necessity of the 
present contour of the continents is the vast prepon- 
derance of land in the northern hemisphere."^ The 
globe may be so divided that one-half is almost en- 
tirely covered by water, and the major portion of the 
other half by land. A circle drawn through the coast 
of Peru and the south of Asia so divides the earth 

* First remarked by Ritter. 



142 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITT OF MAN. 

into a terrestrial and oceanic hemisphere. Then, in 
one of these halves, are grouped all the important 
masses of land, wliile in the vast ocean of the other 
onl}'- float scattered groups of islands and the extremi- 
ties of the most projecting peninsulas, and Australia, 
the most insignificant of the continents. 

In the grouping of the lands, the Old and New 
Worlds are the exact reverse. The masses in the 
Old World stretch from east to west ; in the New, from 
north to south. One consequence of this arrangement, 
which at first appears of little moment, is tliat Asia 
and EuiT)pe have a vast area occupying t|ie same 
zone ; while America, traversing all the zones of the 
earth, presents a great variety of phenomena. As 
will be readily admitted, this configuration exerts a 
great influence on mankind, an influence hereafter to 
be more fully considered. 

All the facts of Nature are dependent and mutually 
related. Thus the shape of continents, foreign as it 
appears to intellectual development, bears with great 
force, as will be hereafter shown, on its advancement. 

The similarity of form in the three continental mass- 
es points^ to a law by which they were fashioned ; 
and as man, the plastic being, must conform to the 
implastic conditions of the continents in order to be 
in harmony with their conditions, he becomes directly 
related to the laws by which they were produced. 

Let us consider his relations to the country in 
which he is placed, and the results of slight differ- 
ences of configuration. If the continents were de- 
pressed a few hundred feet, nothing would remain but 
the high table-lands and mountain summits above an 



RELATION OF CONTINENTAL FORMS TO MAN. 143 

almost universal ocean. An elevation of a few hun- 
dred feet would throw the continents up into the cold 
strata of the atmosphere, and transform the tropics 
into arctic regions. Such trivial causes decide 
whether a country shall be a torrid plain, a dry pla- 
teau, a desert of sand, a waste of water, or a fruitful 
plain. A few feet of elevation only makes the differ- 
ence between the airy table-lands of Mexico, and the 
pestilential plains at its feet; between the fertile 
plains of India, and the cold, barren plateaux of 
Thibet. 

• For example, take North America ; suppose it to be 
tilled so that its great rivers, instead of flowing into 
the Gulf of Mexico, empty into the Arctic Ocean : 
for the purposes of civilization, the continent would 
be a failure. Commerce could not flow to the north, 
and for its purposes the rivers would be useless. The 
lands facing the sweeping arctic winds would return 
a poor encouragement to agriculture ; and nothing 
would be left to the unfortunate people who inhabited 
it but to become nomadic, and gain a scant subsistence 
from their wandering herds, like the people of North- 
ern Asia, where precisely such conditions exist. 
Thus the direction of the inclination of continents, 
small as its influence w^ould appear, exerts a vast 
power on civilization. 

Glance for a moment at the influence exerted by 
mountain chains. Setting aside the barriers they 
oppose between the mingling of nationalities, hem- 
ming in ambitious communities, and protecting weaker 
tribes from the encroachments of stronger neighbors, 
their influence on climate alone is incalculable. Sup- 



144 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

pose the Rocky Mountains, instead of skirting the 
western shores of America, were placed in the position 
of the Great Lakes ; protected from arctic winds, the 
countries to the south would perfectly represent the 
.plains of India. The United States would be entirely 
free from the influence of the cold gales which are so 
severe in winter, in spring and autumn, and of which 
summer is not wholly free. 

Still greater would be the changes were the Andes 
placed on the eastern instead of the western coast of 
South America. Now, the trade-winds deluge the 
vast plains of Brazil, pouring torrents on the very 
summit of that range, creating the largest rivers on 
the globe, — the La Platte, Orinoco, and Amazon, the 
latter one hundred and fifty miles broad at its mouth, 
and pouring a torrent of such strength as to combat 
successfully with the tides of the sea. But, as the 
winds pass over, their last drop of moisture is wrung 
from them, and the narrow belt of land between them 
and the Pacific is nearly or quite rainless : the condi- 
tion which would prevail over the whole continent 
were the Andes placed on the eastern instead of the 
western coast of South America ; and, like the rainless 
regions of Peru and Chili, not a rain-drop would f^U 
on the illimitable expanse of desert, nor a cloud 
obscure the burning expanse of its sky. 

Taking the world as it is, we see that physical con- 
ditions determine the variety of men who permanently 
occupy any given region. 

The occupying race have been brought into equi- 
librium with those conditions at some indefinite time 
in the past, and now, so to speal?, being acclimated, 



RELATION OP CONTINENTAL FORMS TO MAN. 145 

hold it against all others ; for climate, which is their 
safeguard, is destructive to a foreign people. In the 
earliest historic epoch, this equilibrium had become 
well established. Each race held essentially the 
same countries as at present. The Semite, the Negro, 
the European, each held the same provinces as now. 
The people of Arabia, of Northern Africa, of the 
Steppes of Asia, tended their herds, and roamed over 
the wastes, in the same manner as they do to-day. 
Civilization can never rise above the pastoral state in 
those countries ; for, to its high advancement, there 
must be a crowded population and an abundance of 
food. In countries so barren that but a family can 
exist to the square mile, little progress can occur. 
The deserts must always be peopled by nomads ; and 
the fertile plains, by dense agricultural populations. 

There are climates where no human being can 
exist, as that of the celebrated Campagna and Pon- 
tine, which affects the Italian just as it did in the days ^ 
of Livy. Those who are compelled to dwell in the 
poisonous district, show, by their bloated forms, dis- 
torted features, dark-yellow complexion, and livid lips, 
that there is no acclimation against such a climate. 
Generally, however, some races are more affected 
than others. The African seems perfectly acclimated 
to all torrid climates, and able to bear, unharmed, 
vicissitudes which are wholly insupportable by 
lighter races. When transported to the low sea- 
board lands of the Southern Statea, they not only 
enjoy health, but rapidly increase, and attain a re- 
markable longevity; while the European, avoiding 
every exposure, and occupying the healthiest locali- 

10 



146 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

ties, from*earliest infancy manifests symptoms of the 
insidious working of the malarious influence which 
early disorganizes the human fabric. The negro labors 
in the rice-swamp all day beneath the burning sun, 
without danger; but a single hour's exposure of the 
European often so impregnates the morbific matter, 
that no medicine can alleviate its rapid progress to dis- 
solution. Chemistry cannot detect the character of 
the malaria ; for it is extremely subtle, and powerful in 
'prgportion to its subtlety. It does not result always 
from decomposition of animal or vegetable matter 
alone. The Campagna does not difibr, from other 
plains ; nor does the deadly vicinity of Vera Cruz, with 
its long stretch of sandy beach and sand-hills, difier 
from other shores. Such decompositions may assist; 
but to them must be added direct exhalations from 
the earth, the cause of which we do not understand. 

From the yellow fever the negro is exempt, or 
l^early so, — his liability to it has been determined as 
13.19 to 6000.4, — and he escapes the deadly malaria 
of Vera Cruz. 

The same holds good between the Oceanicans and 
the cinnamon-colored Polynesians. The Island of 
Vanikow has a climate so deadly to the latter, that 
a night's exposure is certain death ; but the former 
enjoy perfect health. Some regions of Hindostan are 
so deadly, that they cannot be visited by whites ; but 
the Hindoo inhabits them, enjoys health, and lives to 
a good age. 

Such are a few of the leading facts adduced to prove 
that the races of men are primordially distinct, and are 
here brought forward to show that they do not point 



RELATION OF CONTINENTAL FORMS TO MAN. 147 

in that direction: all that can be claimed for them is, 
that they refer to races as they are, not as they have 
been ; they do not prove the impossibility of acclima- 
tion, but the vast period requisite to bring about an 
equilibrium between man and a given province. The 
African cannot go north, on account of liability to con- 
sumption, scrofula, and kindred diseases, as well as 
the white can go south. The freedom from malarious 
influences appears to be in proportion to the darkness 
of color ; even dark-skinned brunettes bearing more 
exposure than blondes. This should be so ; for is not 
the darkness of skin an index of acclimation? 

The application of these considerations is easily 
made. If we suppose Central Asia to be the point of 
dispersion, the waves of emigration must necessarily 
follow the paths marked out by the geographical con- 
tour of the surrounding lands. When the earliest 
waves set out, they were rudest savages, without 
even a bow and arrow. They could not pass broad 
rivers, arms of the sea, or mountain chains. They 
were walled in by these. 

Had the Old World been one vast and interminable 
plain, the dispersion of man had been quite different. 
There had been but little of that difference of race 
now so notable, the difi'erentiation of continental 
masses having direct influence on the differentiation 
of race. 

If the map of Asia be examined, it will be seen 
that to a point south-east of the Caspian Sea, or to- 
wards the Highlands of Toorkistan, all the great 
mountain chains converge. Although hemmed in by 
lofty mountains, there are gateways left on every 



148 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

side, through which emigration can readily pass. 
Between the Black Sea and the Caspian, such a 
passage exists, leading into Europe : although closed 
by the Caucasus Mountains, it has many easy passes, 
and affords a ready entrance into Europe. Through 
this passage emigrated the Finns, Iberians, the Celts, 
and Aryans, or Indo-Europeans. 

Between the Caspian and Persian Gulf, another 
passage exists into Arabia, and, beyond the Isthmus of 
Suez, leads into the vast continent of Africa. 

The Ural Mountains prevented the^ Turanian or 
Mongolic waves from overflowing Europe, throwing 
them off* to the north and east, while the Himalaya 
confined them on the south : the latter chain protected 
the commingling of the Dravidians, 'and latterly the 
Aryans, who were thrown south of that range in 
Hindostan, passing into those interminable plains 
over the sources of the Indus. Had the Red Sea 
communicated with the Mediterranean, Africa would 
have remained -uninhabited for an indeterminable 
time, and would not have been peopled until man had 
learned the art of navigation. Had the gateway of 
the Caucasus been closed, and the Indo-Europeans 
forced north along the eastern side of the Ural Moun- 
tains, so as to enter Europe from the north, the 
arrested development shown in the Tungusic tribes 
would have resulted, and its civilization been no 
higher than those tribes present. 

Such considerations might be indefinitely extended: 
they show the strict dependence of man on external 
nature. 



RELATION OF CONTINENTAL FORMS TO MAN. 149 

The continents were first created, and then man. 
They do not harmonize with him; but he, as the 
plastic material, is compelled to conform to the acci- 
dents of his surroundings. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE FIRST WAVES OF DISPERSION: THE ORI- 
ENTAL NEGRO, AFRICAN AND SEMITE. 

• 

The Oriental Negro, or the Australian Eace. — When originated the 
three Great Branches, Semitic, Turanian, Aryan '? — The Semitic. — 
Structure of Language; divided into Aramean, Hebrew, Arabian; De- 
scription of Character, Language and History of Eacli. — Nestorians. — 
Berbers. — Phoenicians. — Egyptians, Language of, Origin of. Shepherd 
Kings of. — Copts. — African Tribes of Semitic Origin: Haussa, Gallas, 
Berberins, Fellatah, Mandihgoes, Yoloffs. — African Race. — Descrip- 
tion of, Origin of. — Divided into two Great Families, Kaffer and Hot- 
tentot. — Language of Africa. — The Damaras. — The Kaffer. — 
The Hottentot. — Description of, Language of, and History of Each. 

The race of men who used the fossil arrows have 
entir-ely passed away from Europe. They^ there, have 
no Hving representative ; but in India, and the Islands 
of the South Sea, there exists a race of men who seem 
to be the Autochthons, the primitive race. Whether 
they are similar to those who used the flint arrows of 
the drift cannot be decided ; but this is certain, that, 
between the employes of the arrows and this race none 
other has left remains. This race has undoubtedly 
changed during the vast interval, but presents us 
with a sample of the most primitive people known to 
have existed. It is an ethnological fossil. It is a 
black race, speaking the most barbarous and unde- 
veloped languages. It inhabits portions of the vast 
plains south of the Himalayas, and extends southward 

150 



THE FIRST WAVES OF DISPERSION. 151 

into the sea, constituting the aboriginal inhabitants of 
Borneo, the Philippines, New-Gninea, Australia, Tas- 
mania, and extends eastward to New-South-Wales. 

The people of the Andaman Isles, though their 
language is allied to the Siamese, Owen considers 
the lowest of mankind. They are of diminutive 
stature ; they have no agriculture, no garments, no 
families, no idea of deity, or a future state. Without 
dwellings or the capacity to construct them, in the in- 
terior wilderness of Borneo, they occupy the branches 
of trees. They were the aboriginals of the Sandwich 
Islands prior to the real Polynesians, having left traces 
of their vocabulary in the language of the latter. 
According to Dr. Foster, the inhabitants of MallicoUo, 
approach nearer the animal than any other. Their 
bodies are entirely covered with black and brown 
hair, their skulls so pressed backwards, and the cheek- 
bones so broad, the face so sooty, as to impart the 
most disagreeable aspect. They are a ^^ small, nimble, 
slender, ill-favored set of men, who, of all men he 
ever saw, border the nearest upon the tribes of 
monkeys.^' Equally degraded are the inhabitants of 
Tauna and New-Caledonia. 

In Austraha, this race exists in what is styled a most 
degenerate form, but, perhaps, really superior to the 
common stock at its departure therefrom. Thinly 
spread over vast regions, if there were few causes for 
advancement, there were none for degeneracy ; and it 
appears reasonable that the race has remained nearly 
stationary from immemorial time, until, in a recent 
period, they were brought in contact with the Poly- 
nesians. The Australian may be taken as the repre- 



152 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 

sentative of the original black race of Hindostan. A 
description of him is a description of man as he was 
prior to two strata of superimposed races. 

The hardy Dampier, in 1686, astonished at the 
appearance of the natives of Australia, wrote, " The 
inhabitants of this country are the most miserable in 
the world, — who have no houses, no skin garments, 
or sheep, or poultry, or fruits of the earth, — and, set- 
ting aside their human shape, they dilBfer but little 
from brutes." 

Another writer, Mr. Collins, has accurately given 
their appearance : "Their noses are flat, nostrils wide, 
eyes much sunken in their heads, and covered with 
thick eyebrows ; their lips thick, and mouth extrav- 
agantly large. Many have very prominent jaws ; and 
there was one man, who, but for the gift of speech 
might well have passed for an orang-outang. He was 
remarkably hairy ; his arms of uncommon length ; in 
his gait he was not perfectly upright.'' ' 

A strip of bark tied around the loins is a sufficient 
raiment, and he lies down where night overtakes him, 
like a wild beast; or, at best, makes a lair of a few 
branches. He does not enter into the relations of 
family, or of clan. He prowls in the forest like a 
wild animal, making no provision for the morrow, 
having no object of worship, or thought of a future 
existence. 

Some authors have disagreed from the received- 
statement of the low estate of this race. Pickering 
states that the finest example of muscular strength, 
and classical mould of head, he saw among Australians. 
From the physical appearance occasionally observed 



THE FIRST WAVES OF DISPERSION. 153 

in individuals, it is probable that there is a slight in- 
fusion of Malay blood ; although this is not confirmed 
by their language, which has not a single Malay word. 
They appear to be not a strictly homogeneous race, 
but mixed. 

The reports of those interested in the instruction 
of Australian children, made to the British Govern- 
ment, state that they surpass Europeans in those 
studies depending on the perceptive faculties, but de- 
ficient in those depending on abstraction, are, without 
doubt, overdrawn. It cannot be supposed that off- 
spring of parents unable to count above three, or at 
most, above five, show the same aptitude as Europeans. 
Such a state of savageness excludes conquest, or mi- 
gration in masses. The extension of such a people 
occurs in the same manner as the spread of animals, — 
by the increase of population pressing outward ; and, 
as- they met with no preoccupying race^ they were at 
liberty to wander as far as they pleased. 

We have seen that the Ibero-Finnic waves in 
Europe correspond to the Dravidian of Hindostan ; 
the Indo-European, to the Hindoo. Does the race of 
the flint age in like manner correspond to the Oriental- 
black? Confined by impassable barriers, the former 
have perished, while the latter, extending to the isles 
of the wide ocean, have remained securely isolated. 
Analogy teaches that wave after wave was sent off to 
the west through the Caucasus, to the south through 
the Hindoo-Kosh ; and that the status of these waves 
at any given age was the same ; and, perhaps, on this 
primitive race is founded the traditions so beautifully 
embodied in the " Kalawala " of the Finns. Have not 



154 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN, 

the same causes which have preserved in Australia 
the fauna of the Oolite, while the remainder of the 
earth underwent the changois of myriads of ages, re- 
sulting in several complete changes of organic beings, 
also preserved a fragmentary living fossil of the early 
age of mankind? 

Subsequent to the spread of the autochthonic black 
race, the true African stock was probably detached 
and spread over Africa. This conclusion is based on 
analogy only ; for the structure of the negro dialects 
has as yet afforded no certain evidence of their origin. 
They must belong, however, to the earlier branches 
thrown off from the great centre. 

The separation of the Semitic, the Turanian, and 
the Aryan branches of mankind, occurred in the 
remote ages of pre-traditionary time. On the theory 
that the lower race must have separated first, the 
truth of which will be so far as possible substantiated 
in future pages, the Semitic must have been first 
thrown off, and the other two branches have remained 
united for a considerable length of time thereafter. 
^ They remained until, as is shown by their corre- 
sponding words, they had invented fixed habitations, 
and domesticated the ox, horse, sheep, goat, and dog. 

Like three great rivers, these great families of man- 
kind roll back into the misty past, and we can only 
see at last the dim lustre of their waves ; but we can 
note their directions, and see that their converging 
lines meet beyond the clouds and fog which shut 
them from our view. Their divergence is far away, 
so remote that the structure of the languages of 
the streams, especially of the Aryan and Semitic are 



THE FIRST WAVES OF DISPERSION. 155 

radically distinct, but by reducing words to their most 
radical forms, a marked resemblance is observed, 
enough to show a common origin. 

As the earliest, we shall first speak of the Semitic 
Family. Setting aside anatomy, it is impossible to 
mistake a Semite; for his language is as unique as his 
physiognomy. All the branches of this family bear 
its indelible marks in the vital structure of tlieir 
tongues, so prominent that the linguist is left in no 
doubt. 

It differs from the other families of languages in the 
formation of its roots, which are composed of three con- 
sonants, while theirs is composed of one or two, linked 
with a vowel. It is consequently called tri-literal. S 
Words are formed from these roots by varying the 
vowels, which are vague, and inserted between the 
rough consonants, or adding a syllable. Few words are 
formed by composition. The verb has but two tenses, 
the nouns but two genders, and case is in general not 
expressed by inflected forms. The structure of the 
sentence is simple, presenting none of the involutions 
of the Indo-European tongues. It has considerable 
poetic power, is expressive of passion and feeling, but 
is wanting in precision, and inadequate to express the 
mature results of thought. The pronunciation of its 
short words is jerking, and far from musical or elegant. 
But there is a rugged sublimity in its terse and 
ambiguous style, which sounds like the rude chant of 
the elements. 

The Seii^iites have the glory of producing the reli- 
gious doctrines received by the most civilized races 
of the world. They have given the world three great 



uy 



156 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

religious systems^ Judaism, Christianity, and Moham- 
medanism ; and now the believers in their system of 
monotheism embrace all the civilized races of the 
world. 

They have given the divine law to nations reaching 
the confines of the arctic circle, and those under the 
burning torrid; to the polished nations of Europe, 
and the hordes of the African deserts. Amid the sur- 
rounding mass of monstrous mythologies, and childish 
conjectures, they ever maintained the grand concep- 
tion of one infinite, all-wise, and all-powerful God. 
He dwelt in light unapproachable, reflecting the stern 
and savage ideas of the Semite mind in his love for 
strict and unmitigated justice, — a justice terrible, vin- 
dictive, and revengeful. In the Old Testament or 
Koran, his image is the same. 

If, however, he escaped prevailing mythologic ideas 
in regard to the unity of God, his sensuous and pas- 
sionate mind invented mythological trappings envi- 
roning that unity, which, becoming incorporated in 
Christianity, and flowing through the rank corruptions 
of Greece and Rome, concreted in the abominations 
of Romanism, and are plainly perceptible at the 
present. 

The Semite attempted to build cities ; but he was 
too restless to- abide their completion. His religion 
bound him only long enough to build his temples. 
The Biblical account of the patriarchs tending their 
flocks on the great plains is true of Semitic life every- 
where. 

He loves traffic, connives at unlawful gain, has little 
energy, loves revenge, hates labor, is a cosmopolite; 



THE FIRST WAVES OF DISPERSION. 157 

the same three thousand years ago in his tent on the 
plains of Syria, the wastes of the desert, or selling 
clothes in the great metropolis ; anstere, selfish, hating 
other races, with little that an Aryan would consider 
noble, or manly. Tenacious of the past, and disin- 
clined to change, combining the strongest passions 
with the strongest religious sentiments, he is capa- 
ble of astonishing acts of heroism, or rather fanati- 
cism. A wandering people. The Arab in his tent is 
no more so than the dwellers at Jerusalem before its 
fall. They were always a dispersed people ; and now, 
although the moans of the Hebrews for the great and 
holy city is only equalled by the sighs of the Germans 
for their father-land, they may w^ell be distrusted 
when, if they desired, they might purchase it with a 
tithe of what they possess. 

The Semitic race is recognizable, most uniquely, 
through its negative characters : it has no mythology 
(of its own), "nor epopees ; neither science, nor philos- 
ophy ; neither fiction, nor plastic arts, nor civil life." 
No language has radiated less. It has always been 
confined in the peninsular space, between the Arme- 
nian mountains, and those which bound the basin of the 
Tigris ; and only by Phoenician colonization and Mos- 
lem invasion has it been partially dispersed. 

The first emigrations of the Semitic race from Asia 
is lost even to tradition; but twenty centuries B.C., 
Babylonian records show traces of Semitic forms. 
The geographical configuration of Asia indicates the 
great highways of these waves. 

Supposing that the three great families of mankind 
sprang from Central Asia, the isolation of that por- 



158 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

tion known as Armenia and Mesopotamia, by the 
mountain barrier separating them from Persia, affords 
the ke}^ whereby we can solve the problem of the dif- 
ferentiation of the Semitic branch. While, on the other 
side of this barrier, the Turanian and Aryan families 
remained together, the Semitic, cut off from their in- 
fluence, swept onward in a career emphatically its 
own, ages after to meet those families after they 
had passed the Caucasus and the Black Sea, on 
the shores of the Mediterranean. From their centre 
of dispersion at the foot of this barrier, they ex- 
tended southward, along the western shores of the 
Persian Gulf, over all Arabia to the Gulf of Aden 
and the Arabian Sea, and westward over Asia Minor, 
clustering around the Mediterranean. By colonization, 
or pouring through the gate of the Isthmus of Suez, 
they extended along the southern coast of the Medi- 
terranean, occupying the country from the sea to the 
desert, and breaking at length on the Atlantic shore, 
or extending even to the Canary Isles. The little 
known of the extinct Cannaries or Guanches showing 
that they were of the Berber race. Southward along 
the western shore of the Red Sea, they reached and 
occupied Abyssinia. 

This wide dispersion created as wide a difference 
of dialects; yet small in comparison with the Tura- 
nian or Aryan : a fact accounted for by the uniformity, 
of the regions over which they spread. They are 
divisible into three orders : Arameans, Hebrews, and 
Arabians. The Arameans occupied Syria at .an early 
period, and after the Hamite dynasties held posses- 
sion of Babylon. The Modern Chaldee is the direct de- 



THE FIRST WAVES OF DISPERSION. 159 

scendant of their language, which in the first centuiy 
was spoken from the Mediterranean to the Tigris. It 
was the native speech of Christ and the Apostles. In 
it the Targum was composed, and it continued to be 
the literary language of the Jews to the tenth cen- 
tury, and of the cities or empires of Ninevah and 
Babylon. The Hebrew order embraces the Jews, the 
Canaanites, and Phoenicians. 

Carthage, so long the successful rival of Rome, was 
a Phoenician colony ; but the Carthaginians, when they 
settled in Africa, found the Berber before them, belong- 
ing to the same family, but of older birth. The " shep- 
herd kings ^' who conquered Egypt, and held it at least 
five hundred years, were of undoubted Semitic stock. 
As'' delineated on the most ancient monuments of 
Egypt, the Semite differs little from the type he bears 
at present. The Jew is of the most hardy race of 
history. A dispersed people at least four centuries 
B.C. (Knox, ^^ Races of Men^^), they have been perse- 
cuted and despised by all other races ; yet they have 
thrived wherever they have taken up their abode. 
It is impossible to annihilate or change them. The 
statements of Pritchard are not authenticated by closer 
observations. The Jew of the torrid is darker than of 
the temperate, but, in every thing else except that 
superficial character, is a Jew. They increase in 
Sweden faster than the Christian population; in Algiers 
they are the only people able to maintain themselves ; 
in Aden, the hottest place in the world, and in Cochin 
China, they appear to be unaffected by the climate. 

The Arabians originally occupied the peninsula of 
Arabia. The Hicayaxitic inscriptions record their an- 



160 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN.- 

cient form of speech, showing how extremely remote 
was their origin ; and, if we accept Renan's conclu- 
sions, before them Arabia supported a Hamite popula- 
tion. In tlit)se early days they colonized Abj^ssinia, 
where their language, the Geez, is preserved in sacred 
writings. They also extended over Northern Africa, 
where they still remain under the name of Berber, and, 
with the tenacity which ever characterized this peo- 
ple, they held the valleys of the Atlas against the Car- 
thaginians, Romans, Bazantines, Vandals, and later the 
Arabs, none of whom have been able to absorb or de- 
stroy them. They were, in the eleventh century, 
pressed towards the desert ; yet they hold a larger 
area than any other people in Africa,"^^ — an area stretch- 
ing from the northern skirts of the Atlas south over 
the Great Desert to the regions of the Niger and the 
Soudan, and from Egypt to the Atlantic ocean. They 
were the Libyans of the ancients. The great com- 
mercial race of the deserts, — their traders uniting the 
unknown interior with the Mediterranean, — and natural 
robbers, they form the greatest obstacle to travellers 
in penetrating that interior. Their language is di- 
rectly descended from the ancient Libyan, and so un- 
corrupted that the bi-lingual inscriptions on the rocks 
of Northern Africa show not only the same idioms 
but many of the letters used by modern Berbers. 

It is in recent times that the Arabians spread 
over Northern Africa ; and, finding the climate very 
similar to that of Arabia, they became people of the 
. oil. Amid this mixture of peoples an aggregation is 
observed. The Moors, or Berbers, living in cities, 
forming the merchants, farmers, and tradesmen ; the 



THE FIRST WAVES OF DISPERSION. 161 

Arabs on the plains are the shepherds ; the Kabalyls 
in the mountains are ferocious robbers, while the Bed- 
ouin defies all restraint, and turns his hand^gainst 



QCl 



all. These are united under the common bona of the 
Mohammedan faith. 

The African Arab has been modified by climate, and 
his dialect has so changed that the true Arabian un- 
derstands him with difficulty ; but he disdains to bor- 
row the idiom of the conquered people. He pitches 
his tent in the subdued country, but generally refuses 
to mingle with the natives of the soil. Lithe, agile, 
capable of superhuman endurance, impatient of con- 
trol, a lover of the desert, a monotheist by nature, 
despising labor, a lover of gain, especially of unlawful 
seizure, — such is the Arab of antiquity, such is the 
Arab of to-day. Along the southern border of the des- 
ert, where the Berber, Arab, and Negro races meet, a 
complete gradation takes place. On many of the 
oases, as Ashen, says Bartle, the harsh Berber charac- 
ter is blended with the playfulness and darker color 
of the African. The Berber now roams with his 
flocks over the ruins of a splendid civilization. That 
civilization was of his own race, but he held the soil, 
while they colonized. They flourished and decayed in 
his midst, and are so completely forgotten that the 
relics of their former grandeur awaken in him not 
even curiosity. 

History finds the Phoenicians at the height of power 
and civilization. They have the honor of inventing 
the phonetic alphabet, which at once sweeps away the 
tedious and ambiguous systems of hieroglyphic wri- 
ting, and of which our own is simply a modification in 
11 



162 T^E ORIGm AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

characters. They were exclusively maritime, and the 
boldest mariners of the world. If tradition be received 
they s^ed down the Red Sea, and, after circumnavi- 
gating Africa, returned through the Pillars of Hercules 
and the Mediterranean; a feat not again attempted 
until after the lapse of more than two thousand years. 
Even the stormy isles of the Northern Ocean were 
visited by their galleys in search of tin ; and the re- 
mote Baltic was searched for amber. To them* is 
referred the invention of glass, and their artificers 
astonished the ancients by their ingenuity. Insatiate 
traffickers, they conveyed the commodities of India, 
by way of the Red Sea and the deserts, to the people 
of the West. 

Carthage arose at the expense of the mother coun- 
try; and the conquests of Alexander, and* especially 
his founding the great commercial centre of Alexan- 
dria, situated on the natural highway between the East 
and the West, ruined Phoenician commerce. 

By the captivity of the Jews, Hebrew became mixed 
with Aramean, the language of Babylon, and sub- 
merged by the political ascendency of the latter, and 
of Syria, at last to be swept away by the Arabic, 
which, since the conquest in 636 A.D., has become the 
language of the whole country originally occupied by 
the Semitic race. 

One important historical race has not yet submit- 
ted to classification, bat shows a nearer alliance to the 
Semite than to any other branch. They are the Egyp- 
tians, who were the wonder and admiration of the 
ancients, and from whom Greece and Rome received 



THE FIRST WAVES OF DISPERSION. 163 

the rudiments worked up into their charming my- 
thology. 

The Nestorians. a fragment of the Semitic family 
belonging to the Aramean branch, are found amid the 
mountains of Kurdistan, and the northwest province 
of Persia. They are an exception to the Semite, who 
never renounces his religion ; they having, in the fifth 
century, embraced Christianity. Their ancient lan- 
guage was the same as that spoken by Christ ; but 
their modern speech is mixed with Persian, Kurdish, 
and Turkish words. Their missionaries present the 
most wonderful examples of perseverance and devo- 
tion. 

When thinly scattered, they are subject to the 
Kurds ; but one tribe, the Tiaree, are as ferocious as 
the Kurds, and have preserved their independence. 

They are strictly pastoral, and are slowly coming 
under Turkish rule. They are mostly serfs, and suf- 
fer from extreme poverty. They are generally hand- 
some, with light complexion, and head with a marked 
cut of features resembling the Jews. 

The origin of the Egyptians has been a problem 
creative of great confusion. Their language was of too 
early date to bear the impress of collateral branches, 
and is isolated except in the Semitic direction. Its 
structure is what grammarians would call an advance 
on the Semitic ; but its noun and pronoun are entirely 
like that family of tongues, and is profuse in aspirates. 
It is to history and etymology we must look for a so- 
lution. Known to the ancients as Egyptians and Ethi- 
opians, they are not only interesting for their wonderful 
civilization, but from its being the only great empire, 



164 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

except the colony of Carthage, that the African conti- 
nent has produced. Much learning has been expended 
in the controversy whether the Egyptian was a negro 
or not, which grew out of loose expressions of classic 
authors. The necessity for such wordy and never- 
ending debates has been set aside by the recent explo- 
rations of the ruins of Egyptian tombs and temples. 
In the tombs the entire nation, generation after gen- 
eration, is preserved. The skulls of these innumera- 
ble mummies are entirely distiiict from the negro 
races, approaching in a decided manner the type of 
the European. The hair of the mummies is not wooly, 
but long aiidftOivi7ig, and, when best preserved, of a 
brown color. There can be no reasonable doubt but 
the sculptures on the monuments of Egypt are faith- 
ful delineations. They have been preserved in all 
their pristine freshness. There the negro is admira- 
bly drawn, having wooly hair and jetty countenance ; 
and beside him are placed the red Egyptian, and the 
Semite. Pritchard doubted their African origin, and 
referred them to the Hindoos of the Ganges, a theory 
quite as baseless. The Sanskrit has no affinity for 
the language of Egypt ; and there is not the least evi- 
dence of any communication having taken place be- 
tween the Nile and the Ganges, not even a legendary 
tale. 

The argument afforded by caste, a unique system, 
but alike adopted by Hindostan and Egypt, has been 
swept away by the revelation recently made that the 
division of caste never existed in Egypt, — Niebuhr 
notwithstanding, — and that it has been recently intro- 
duced among the Hindoos* 



THE FIEST WAVES OF DISPERSION. 165 

A clue to the origin of the Egyptians is given hj 
Hodgson, who considers the earliest people of Egypt 
to have been Berbers. Situated in a fertile country, 
and pressed together, they would advance faster than 
wandering tribes. Their position on the highway be- 
tween Asia and Africa exposed them to repeated inun- 
dations. The Berber or perhaps a still earlier Semitic 
' wave from Asia formed the under stratum. The model- 
ling of this early type is finely shown by the artists on 
their monuments. They were always a mixed people, 
and their sculptures, at least of their ruling class, show 
predominance of Semitic blood, and of that variety 
known as Chaldean. 

Egypt was for ages a battle-ground between Asiatic 
and African races. After attaining a high state of 
civilization, having finished her system of government, 
and perfected her architecture, the shepherd-kings 
for five hundred years kept her stationary. After 
their overthrow, she continued her triumphant march; 
but the shepherds, who were probably wandering Se- 
mitic tribes, added greatly to her future prosperity by 
introducing the horse and several other domestic ani- 
mals. Their long residence could not otherwise than 
leave a deep trace, by admixture of blood. Before 
their conquest,as well as after, the sculptures of Egyp- 
tian kings indicate Semitic origin. Together with 
these rulers, there is sculptured negro slaves ; and cap- 
tive Semites, with features still more indicative, and 
what has been styled the true Egyptian type, having 
flat and expressionless features, appear, coming up 
from the primitive stratum or earliest race. 

A cursory examination of engravings from Egyptian 



166 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

monuments clearly indicates a highly developed peo- 
ple, but one extremely mixed, and offering a perplex- 
. ing study. Many of the sculptured heads are of pure 
Grecian mould, and clearly must have been related in 
Bome manner to Greece. We pass entirely into the 
land of conjecture ; but it is not improbable that a 
branch of the Pelasgi penetrated and were incorpo- 
rated with the autochthonic race. 

The Copts are the direct descendants of the old 
Egyptians, and have preserved the lowest type of 
their sculpture. 

The origin of the Egyptians has been invested with 
needless importance. Seen through the mist of classic 
description, they seem to absorb the entire ancient 
world, where comparatively they were but an insignifi- 
cant people. Their civilization was wonderful, occur- 
ring as it did, surrounded by barbarism, but is dwarfed 
when compared with that of the present Indo-Euro- 
pean. The great diversity of type exhibited by the 
hieroglyphic paintings reveal an extremely mixed 
race of Semites and negroes, with a basic population 
indicating remote Semitic origin. 

These sculptures commence about 4000 B.C., when 
the hieroglyphics were already perfected. What oc- 
curred previous^ ? Linguistic research is silent, and 
Ave must abide conclusions dra^wn from monumental 
records. 

There are many tribes in Africa north of the Moun- 
tains of the Moon, who, from their black color, have 
been classed with negroes. If reliance be placed in 
the aflSnities of language to determine the place the 
various tribes occupy in the classification of mankind, 



THE FIRST WAVES OF DISPERSION. 167 

these peoples belong to the Semitic race, or to what 
some have called Hamitic, which is nothing more than 
an imaginary early branch of that race. 

From the Berber of the coast of the Mediterranean, 
as we pass across the Desert of Sahara: the type 
changes almost insensibly from the Semitic to the Ne- 
gro. There can be no doubt that this is the result of 
mixture of these races. Such blendings are observ- 
able in the Turanian fragment occupying the country 
between Lakes Yeou and Tsad, where the Berber ele- 
ment is added, and the inhabitants of the eastern part 
of the Great l)esert, the TibboOj who have elegant Eu- 
ropean features, with jetty black color, and' speak a 
language allied to the ruling tribe of Borneo. 

The Haussa* occupy the centre of the continent 
and one of its finest provinces ; and, until the begin- 
ning of this century, they held an important empire, 
Theji speak the Haussas, a tongue strongly Semitic. 
Their forms are graceful ; their features regular, noble, 
and pleasing ; and their temper lively, spirited, and 
cheerful. The Eastern Nubians are a very ancient 
people, who speak a language classed by Renan with 
the Semitic. Their physical type is neither Semitic 
nor Negro. They have regular European features, a 
dark or black countenance, and curly hair. They are 
a shrewd, energetic people, living a nomadic life. 

Encircling Abyssinia, south of the Hamitic people 
of the Nile, are the Gallas, a people speaking a lan- 
guage thoroughly Semitic, and so powerful and war- 
like that they constantly encroach on the Abyssinians. 
They are a tall and well-formed people, with large 
foreheads, aquiline nose, well-cut mouth, a coppery 



168 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

color, and curly hair. They are the most infamous of 
all the slave-dealing tribes, and are extremely savage, 
delighting in drinking blood as it flows from the living 
animal ; and some of their tribes do not even bury 
their dead, leaving them exposed, to be devoured by 
wild animals. 

The high mountain plateau of Sennaar is inhabited 
by a race of a dark-brown color, frizzled hair, but reg- 
ular features. They are classed by Renan as Semitic. 

The Berherins of Nubia are described by Denon as 
of a jetty-black color, exactly like that of antique 
bronzes, but 'without the smallest resemblance other- 
wise to the negro ; their eyes deep-set and sparkling, 
with overhanging brows, high pointed nose, mouth 
wide, lips moderately thick. Their color is not always 
black, but is often coppery-red. Their face is per- 
fectly oval, and nose often Grecian ; their hair bushy, 
but not woolly. They are of precisely the HaAitic 
type, but their language cannot be assigned at present 
to any family. 

The Fellatahs are a race inhabiting a territory equal 
in extent to one-tenth of Europe, extending from 
the Atlantic Ocean to Borneo on the east, from the 
Great Desert to the Bight of Benin and Kong Moun- 
tains on the south. They are of perfect European 
features, of a mahogany color, sometimes not darker 
than the Spaniard, and their hair straight. They have 
a noble bearing, are intelligent, and possess a deep 
poetic feehng, and are subject to the deepest enthu- 
siasm. They are a nomadic people, who have made 
considerable advance in agriculture. They have 
lately attracted attention by the zeal they have dis- 



THE FIRST WAVES OF DISPEBSION. 169 

played in promulgating the faith of Mohammed. In 
this they rival the Arab, and seem destined to extend 
the religion of the prophet over Africa. They are 
thus working a great change for the better; for it 
must be acknowledged that Mohammedanism is the 
best system which the African will receive, and that 
it is immeasurably superior to the fetichism of the 
negro. It prohibits human sacrifice, nourishes learn- 
ing, and induces a belief in personal dignity, a trust 
in Providence, and unites all believers into a common 
brotherhood. It has also prevented the slave-trade. 
This is shown by the Fellatahs never having partici- 
pated in ther slave-trade, for, according to the Koran, a 
believer cannot become a slave. 

Although greatly mixed, it is the opinion of those 
best qualified to judge that they are of the original 
Egyptian or Hamitic stock. Their language is primi- 
tive, and without an alphabet, and its numerals reach 
only five. It has a relationship in its alliteral 
changes to the Kaflfer tongue, which probably is a 
degraded ofi'spring of the primitive Hamito-Semitic. 
Its structure is allied to the Ashanti and Timmanee. 
The Mandingoes and Yolofi*s on the Gambia and Sene- 
gal, retain a vestige of Semitic blood largely diluted 
with the true African. They are zealous Moham- 
medans, but still are fetich in their worship. They 
possess well-ordered governments, and good public 
schools ; and all their leading men can read and write 
Arabic. They are good agriculturists, and skilful 
manufacturers of cloth, leather, iron instruments, and 
their merchants enterprisingly conduct the principal 
commerce of Northern Africa. 



170 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

The African, or negro, race, as will be seen by 
reference to the chart, were an early branch thrown 
off previous to the subdivision of the main stem into 
the other three great families. From this it will be 
understood that we are not to consider one race as 
springing from another, but each advancing after its 
own type in a parallel or diverging course. 

The popular idea of the negro race, as sooty black, 
with woolly hair, flat noses, and long heels, is very 
erroneous, but has been countenanced by scientific 
works. This description applies only as a type, but is 
never fully realized. 

There is no family of mankind among whom greater 
diversity exists than the African, as will be seen by a 
review of its various tribes. Some nations, as the 
YolojBfs, present the finest European forms, regular 
and perfect features, but their color is deepest black ; 
while the people of the Gold Coast have perfect 
negro features, but are light colored. The Barabras 
and Bedjas present scarcely any other African pecu- 
liarity than a swarthy complexion, and curly hair. 
Other tribes have negro features, and black color, but 
straight hair. The Bechuana Kafifers have European 
features aiid form, and a light color, but woolly hair. 
Thus, through every gradation of hair, color, and 
features, — from the highest Aryan to the lowest Hot- 
tentot, — there are all grades, from woolly to straight, 
from white to black, from high, aquiline features to 
the depressed of the typical negro. 

What is called the ^^ negro type '' is the exception, 
and seems to be the result of adverse circumstances. 
More than a general view of the innumerable tribes 



THE FIRST WAVES OF DISPERSION. 171 

of Africa will not be profitable. It is of little avail to 
read lists of unpronounceable names. We can group 
the primary facts and thus render them available ; 
but the countless negro tribes and dialects, the rise 
and fall of which counts in the progress of mankind 
scarcely more than the births and deaths of antelopes 
and lions of that localitv, are of little use. The 
desert tribes, including all those dwelling north of the 
Mountains of the Moon, have been referred to else- 
where, as they show closer alliance to another branch, 
the Semitic or Hamito-Semitic. 

It appears that a branch, marked in the chart as 
African, was thrown off at a very early period, and 
occupied Africa. When the Semitic wave bore the 
Berber, the Egyptian, and the Arab, successively to 
Africa, and perhaps a still earlier people, the two races, 
the African and Semitic, blended together. I have 
purposely arranged the tribes north of the Mountains 
of the Moon in a descending series, from the pure 
Semite to the almost African Mandingoe. It will be 
seen by the present chapter that the degradation can 
be carried still further. The Mandingoes are remark- 
able for their fine physique, and ingenuity in arts and 
agriculture ; but in the dense jungles and swamps 
which line their coast for hundreds of miles, they as- 
sume what has been considered the true "negro 
type.'' The climate, deadly to Europeans, has exerted 
a moulding influence. We speak of Senegambia, 
which is peopled by a jetty black negro race. North- 
ern Guinea is peopled by a low negro race, who are 
the most degraded pagans. 

The tribes of the Gold Coast are more intelligent. 



172 THE OEIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. ' 

The Kons dwell on the coast from St. Andrew to 
Cape Mensurado. They have a fine physique, are of 
every grade of color, but have negro features. The 
Ashanti races have an inferior physical development, 
and do not present open or manly countenances. 
They have been exposed to the terrible blight of sla- 
very ; but missionaries have begun a civilizing pro- 
cess, which may reach high results. 

The tribes of Benin, Dahomey, and Yoruba, have 
also been disorganized by the demand for slaves. Da- 
homey has become almost proverbially known. The 
people of Yoruba have a constitutional government, 
profess a monotheistic religion, are industrious, and 
notably free from licentiousness, and skilful in the 
arts. 

All the northern tribes, even those which are abso- 
lutely ^^ negro,'^ have various religious customs which 
point to their Semitic parentage : " Such as circum- 
cision ; division of tribes into families, and often into 
the number twelve ; the interdiction of marriage be- 
tween families toa nearly related ; bloody sacrifices, 
and the sprinkling of blood upon the altars and door- 
posts ; the observance of new moons, and weekly 
festivals ; the division of time into seven days ; the 
shaving the head, and wearing tattered clothes in sign 
of mourning ; the rites of purification, and the belief 
in demoniacal possession.'' 

- One custom, however, is decidedly African: the heir- 
ship of all property descending to the females instead 
of the males, atid through the sister instead of the son. 

From the Mountains of the Moon south to the Southern 
Sea, the entire continent of Africa, from ocean to ocean, 



THE FIRST WAVES OP DISPERSION. 173 

is peopled by a pure race of negroes, who have com- 
pletely penetrated its every recess, and made it for 
immemorial ages their home. Their language proves 
them to be a unit, but throws no light on their origin, 
except it be to prove them to be a distinct people. It 
is not to be understood that a uniform type prevails. 
On the contrary, there exists the greatest diversity, 
from the high features of the European to the flat 
nose of the negro, and from jetty black to light yel- 
low. The prominent nationalities which may be taken 
as characteristic of the countless inferior tribes, are 
the Pongo and Congo peoples of the Atlantic coast ; 
the Kaffers, Zulucs, and Bechuanas of the south ; the 
Swahere of the eastern coast ; and the Hottentot 
Family. Thus the South- African tribes are divided 
into two great families, the Kaffers and Hottentots. 

The latter are the oldest people, and probably in- 
habited the regions to the north, and were expelled 
southward by the approach of the Kaffers, a process 
still taking place. They would then appear as a con- 
temporary wave of the oriental negro, whom they re- 
semble. The Kaffers, who have given their name to the 
great North-African family, are a tall, robust race, 
with a deep black, or bronze, complexion. Their faces 
are oval, nose not' depressed, and the hair only 
crisped. They are a pastoral and patriarchal people. 
Their language is soft and euphonious, but has incor- 
porated the " click '^ of the Hottentot. 

All the dialects of this family are distinguished by 
" alliteration,^^ by which is meant that the " initial 
letter of the leading noun reappears in the beginning 
of all dependent or related words in the sentence." 



174 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

Everything is sacrificed to this, as we often see in 
children's prattle, which it exactly resembles. As 
though a child should say, for, I am very thirsty to-day, 
Ti tam tvery thirsty to-tday. Nothing can show with 
greater force than this peculiarity the common 
origin of the tribes who use this strange euphony. 
The people of Southern Guinea all speak a Kaffer dia- 
lect, of which it is said, '' there are perhaps no lan- 
guages in the world capable of more definiteness and 
precision of expression.^' 

The Damaras are supposed to have emigrated from 
the interior of Africa to the country they used to oc- 
cupy, extending east from the Atlantic to Lake 
Ngami, within the last century. They are a pastoral 
people. They practise circumcision, and offer prayers 
and sacrifices to the spirit of the dead. They are in 
constant warfare with the Hottentots, whose territory 
they have invaded, and being rapidly exterminated. 
The Ovampas dwell to the north of the Damaras. 
They are skilled in working metals, in agriculture, 
and in commerce. Their love of country is so great 
that they are unprofitable for slaves, as they die of 
home-sickness. 

The Bechuanas are the most powerful of the Kafior 
races. They are keen wits, of revengeful temper, and 
given to theft. Agriculture flourishes under the care 
of the women, while the men engage in hunting and 
war. Their language is poor in abstract terms, hav- 
ing no words for conscience, spirit, &c., and hence 
their mental advance must be extremely limited. 

The peoples of the eastern coast are more degraded 
than those of the western. They believe in the gross- 



THE FIRST WAVES OP DISPERSION. 175 

est fetichism, and are preyed upon by the most loath- 
some superstitions. They have felt also the blight of 
the slave-trade ; and the most cruel and devastating 
wars have been waged for the purpose of slave cap- 
ture. 

The tribes of Kaffers are not stationary, but their 
state of unrest resembles that of the G-ermans in the 
first centuries. Gigantic emigrations en masse are con- 
stantly occurring, and nations are as constantly ab- 
sorbed, conquered, or blotted out. The Matahele on 
the east have founded a vast empire, embracing many 
disjointed fragments ; the Tschobe have erected 
another ; and the Makalolo have nearly perished by 
fever. The emigration of the Damaras has already 
been spoken of, and also that they were rapidly per- 
ishing by the fierce onslaughts of Hottentot tribes. 

The Hottentot. I stated that this is the oldest 
African family. That it extended far to the north is 
shown by the Hottentot names the rivers in the 
Kaifer country still retain, and also by fragments of 
tribes which dwell as far north, and even beyond, 
Lake Ngami. In the deserts, where the most de- 
graded Kaffer tribes live by the side of the Bush- 
man, the vitality of race is beautifully shown. They 
have lived thus for ages, but are as distinct as when 
they first came in contact. The former will grow 
pumpkins, and keep a few goats; but the latter know 
nothing of even such little arts, and lead a brutal 
life, depending for subsistence on the scanty game 
and vermin of the desert. 

The Hottentots have been pushed southward until 



176 THE 0|IGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

they have reached the extremity of Africa. Here they 
recently met a new pressure. The European Cape 
Colony began driving them back against their old ene- 
mies ; and between the two forces they are rapidly de- 
clining. The whole number of pure Hottentots is 
not estimated to exceed 20,000. 

Other tribes on the south-western coast have dis- 
appeared, and others have mingled with the whites, 
producing a mongrel race called Griquas. The Bush- 
men, or Bosjesmen are the most remarkable of the 
Hottentot tribes. It has been supposed that they 
were merely degraded members of that people ; but 
their independent dialect shows them to be distinct^ 
and they are now supposed to be the earliest wave of 
that people who entered Southern Africa, and, as the 
Turanians were beaten down by the Aryans in India, so 
they were oppressed by the succeeding Hottentots. 
A deadly hatred still exists between them. The 
territory of the Cape Colony was the central abode of 
the Bushmen. They had been pushed to the very 
brink of the Continent. They are in the most savage 
condition, living in burrows or bushes. Yet, savage 
as they are, they are excellent herdsmen, in the em- 
ploy of the colonists, and the only African race that 
has manifested any aptitude for art, the only race who 
have sought to express ideas by rude carvings on 
rock and tree. Fragments of this people dwell as 
far north as Lake Ngami, and it is thought, from the 
slaves brought from the interior of Africa, that they 
may be scattered over all South Africa. 

Their moral condition is the lowest. They have no 



THE FIRST WAVES OF DISPERSION. 177 

family ties, nor personal names ; no name for wife. 
They are cheerful, friendly, and true to their promise. 

The descriptions of the Bushmen have been drawn 
from the most exaggerated examples. They often 
present fair proportions ; but they are usually badly 
fed, and often suffer the most pinching want. Small 
ground-animals, as rats and mice, are their staple 
food ; and they wander over the deserts of the Great 
South Namaqua-land where there are only four inhabi- 
tants to a square mile. Hence they present a dwarfish 
size, sometimes less than five feet, with thin limbs, slight 
body, and projecting abdomen. Their high and prom- 
inent cheek-bones, oblique eyes, flat noses, and yellow 
skin give them a decided Mongolian expression. Their 
skull is narrow and long, the hair grows in tufts, leav- 
ing bare spaces between, and, when long, hangs in 
knotted curls like pipe-stems. 

Their language is distinguished by ^^deep, aspi- 
rated gutterals, harsh consonants, and a multitude of 
ugly, inimitable clicks." Yet its structure, in gram- 
matical gender and accusative case, allies it to the 
most highly organized languages. Its aflSnities are 
with Coptic and Semitic. This fact is illustrated in 
the chart, by placing them next to those races. 
These points of resemblance between the earliest 
peoples, however indistinct, are extremely interesting, 
as they point unmistakably to the original unity of the 
races so allied. 

Our survey of the African tribes has been very 
brief, nor does it appear necessary to dwell on the 
minute descriptions of people whose names perhaps 
will be for the first time presented, and in an hour 

12 



178 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 

will be forgotten ; who have no part in onr civilization, 
and little in that of the world. All the facts which 
go towards illustrating the origin of races which they 
afford will be used in appropriate order ; and that is 
all the service that can be wrung from them. 



CHAPTER VIIL 

THE NORTH TURANIAN RACES. 

Name, Derivation of. — Which are the Autochthonic, the Aborignal Eaces ? — 
Wide extent of the Turanian Family. — Characteristics of Languages, 
Agglutination. — Successive Waves. — The Chinese. — Iberians. — Lapps. 

— Finns. — Permians. — Votiaks. — Tscheremisses. — Voguls. — Ostiaks, 
&c. — Samoiedes. — The Mongolians. — Turkish Race. — Turkomans. — 
Usbeks. — Kirgis. — Yakuts. — The Tungusians. — Mandshus. — Osti- 
aks of the Yenisei. — Yakagers. — Kamtschadales. — Aino. — Coreans. 

— Japanese. — Lew-Chew Islanders. — American Indians, Similarity of. — 
Unity of, Origin of. — Origin of Indian Tribes. — The Incas and Aztecs, 
from whence Derived. — Eelations between the Indians and Northern 
Asiatics. — The Destiny of the Red Race. — Turanians of the Caucasus : 
Georgians, Circassians, Abyssinians. 

The great stem from which the Semitic branch sprang 
continued united with the parent trunk for a length 
of time thereafter, as shown by the closer relationship 
of the languages thus continuing together. This re- 
lationship is so evident, that high authorities have said 
that there were really but two families of languages, 
— the Semitic and Aryan ; thus confounding the Tura- 
nian with the latter. 

We must not be misled by classification, which is 
imperfect and arbitrary at best. In the early days of 
their separation, mixtures would occur ; and we find, 
that, faintly as the line is drawn between the blending 
members of Semitic and Turanian, that between Tu- 
ranian and Aryan is still less perceptible. 

17a 



180 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

The name of this great family is derived from Tura, 
the swiftness of the horse : it being applied by the 
Aryans to the barbarous country lying outside of their 
own. They are widely spread ; and so remotely have 
their branches diverged that only by the closest atten- 
tion to analogy can their relations be determined. 
The difficulties which environ the subject are in- 
creased by the blending of nationalities, by which 
their salient characters are, more or less, obliterated ; 
and, as the dispersion occurred countless ages before 
the most vague record, it is in vain we look for aid to 
history. Should we successfully account for the ori- 
gin of the existing races, still there remain extinct 
races, — not autochthonic, for we have seen that peo- 
ple after people have succeeded each other, leaving 
only vestiges of their existence in many places scat- 
tered over the globe. Of these we can only conjec- 
ture that they were waves thrown off in vastly remote 
ages from some creative centre. Of these we learn by 
remnants driven into mountain fastnesses by the pre- 
dominance of superior races, where they have main- 
tained their purity by isolation. These relics are the 
ancient types of the vast Turanian family which now, 
here and there, over the whole of the Old World, crop 
out, like the mountain-cliffs to which they have been 
driven, through the thick strata of other nationalities. 
They are the oldest people of which we can learn by 
the study of language. Undoubtedly, between them 
and the employes of the flint arrows of the Drift num- 
berless others existed, stratum on stratum. But of 
them we can only conjecture, and by imagination 
bridge the vast interval. 



THE NORTH TURANIAN RACES. 181 

The study and classification of the Turanian tongues 
has been the grandest triumph of comparative philol- 
o'gy. The fact that the structure of savage languages 
is more intricate, and hence their affinities more 
strongly marked, has been of great assistance. Em- 
bracing the wandering tribes from the North Cape to 
the Pacific Ocean, the Chinese, the Dravidian-Hindoo, 
the Malay and Polynesian, and the entire Indian peo- 
ple of the New World, its limits are at once strongly 
marked and imperceptibly blended. Itembraces atleast 
two-thirds of mankind, forming the understratum, and 
savage element, at no time or place attaining any great 
civilization. Its languages have been styled Nomadic 
from the wandering character of this family, and the 
great fluctuations which occur in themselves. They 
are characterized by agglutination, or the building up 
of phrases by gluing word to word, so that the phrase 
is but a single word. They are also distinguished for 
the regularity of their forms ; the indiscriminate use 
of the same word as noun, adjective, and verb; and 
the rapid divergence made by these dialects, result- 
ing from the isolated tribes wandering over vast 
plains ; and absence of written forms. It must be re- 
membered, that, previous to their separation, the Ary- 
an and Turanian branches spoke the same primitive 
language. The agglutinized form is necessarily the 
earliest efi^ort of^the mind to express its thoughts. 

Miiller separates the Turanians into two divisions, — 
the northern and southern. The former includes the 
Tungusic, Mongolic, Turkic, Samoiedic, and Finnic 
classes ; the latter the Ta'ic, Malaic, Gangetic, Lohitic, 



182 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 

Munda, and Tamulic. To the northern division the 
American Indian may be added. 

It is entirely by the comparative study _of their 
languages that he supposes there were two directions 
for their migration, north and south, from the table- 
lands of Central A^sia. The first southern wave — the 
Tai'c — settled on the Meikong, Meinam, Irrawaddy, 
and Brahmapootra j the first northern, on the Amoor 
and Lena, founding the Tungusic tribes. A second to 
the south pushed on to the islands of the South Sea, 
and founded the Malays ; a third poured through the 
Himalaya, and formed the original native popula- 
tion of India, crushed by the conquering Aryan-Hin- 
doos. A second to the north originated the Mongul ; 
and a third, the Turkish tribes. This is only an 
hypothesis which can never be proved. The number 
and direction of these emigrations can never be 
known. According to Eawlinson, the 'enthusiastic 
decipherer of the inscriptions of Nineveh, the " Median 
Empire,'' which flourished and fell before Nineveh 
was known, 2458-2234 B.C., was composed of a 
mixture of Turanian races with Semitic or Egyptian. 
Even then, the Chinese Empire was as glorious as 
to-day. Remotely situated from the arena of classic 
history, its existence was unknown. 

From the infantile structure of the Chinese lan- 
guage, together with the discovery that, at least 2000 
B.C.^ they had a fixed and permanent government, 
they are supposed to be the earliest crystallization of 
the Turanian race. Chinese is distinguished by its 
singing accent, which designates the word, and remains 
absolutely fixed ; for, if it changes in the shghtest de- 



THE NORTH TURANIAN RACES. 183 

gree, it produces a new word. A departure is ob- 
served in the Siamese, in laying the stress on the -last 
word of a compound expression. The Burman takes 
a conspicuous step towards agglutination, which is seen 
more decidedly in the Thibetan, which is furthest sep- 
arated from the monosyllabic tongues. 

It has no grammar, as we understand that word ; 
that is, no inflections or declensions ; but the relations 
of words entirely depend on their localities in the 
sentence. Its w^ords are all roots, having never been 
changed by prefixes or suflSxes, thus remaining in the 
most primitive possible state. Although more civil- 
ized than other members of this family, the language 
is the most undeveloped of all. They have advanced 
to the agglutinative stage, but the Chinese presents 
but slight approach to this more progressed form. 
Yet we must allow that these agglutinative tongues 
were once as simple as the Chinese. By some fatality, 
and probably by its early fixture in the sacred writ- 
ings of Confucius, the latter has remained almost im- 
movable. 

The twelve thousand characters or letters in this 
language were once the pictures of the objects they 
represent, but now contracted into seemingly arbi- 
trary signs. AH its characters are such contractions 
of pictures once used, and, as the contraction is not 
governed by any rule, and it is not allowable to intro- 
duce a new picture for a word, how can a new idea 
be expressed ? 

The labor of learning these characters, to use 
them correctly, and write them elegantly, comprises 
the tedious system of Chinese education, on the 



184 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 

success of which all preferment depends. If an idea 
is to be expressed, it must be written exactly after 
the pattern furnished by the classics, and hence must 
become the same idea. A better plan to fetter and 
stagnate thought cannot be conceived. There can be 
no literary progress until the whole system is thrown 
aside for a phonetic alphabet, an event which will not 
occur until forced on them by a conquering race. 
With such a clumsy method, poetry and oratory can- 
not flourish, though all the poetry and fire of Chinese 
character, perhaps, can be expressed. The aflSnities 
of their dialect have not been considered sufficiently 
explicit to place the Chinese in the Turanian family ; 
but whatever evidence is thus furnished is supported' 
by physical characters. The obliquity of the eyelids 
and smallness of the eyes, the lank, straight, black hair, 
and yellow color, point in the same direction as lin- 
guistic alliances. The Mandshus are superior to the 
Chinese proper, being more warlike, and better capa- 
ble of ruling, 

Turanian fragments exist in Europe, as previously 
stated. Of these, the Iberians have attracted great 
attention from the anomaly of the Basque lan- 
guage which they speak. It is preeminently agglu- 
tinative, and strikingly related to the languages of 
America. It compares the idea-word, and, in so doing, 
suppresses entire syllables, presenting sometimes only 
a single letter of a root, and distinguishes case by the 
striking use of post-positions. It is similar to the 
Tartar tongues, to which Finnic makes a closer ap- 
proach. 

So isolated have they remained in their mountain 



THE NORTH TURANIAN RACES. 185 

fastnesses that they seem like a foreign people dropped 
into the centre of Europe. According to Strabo, they 
were not originally warhke ; were moderately endowed 
with natural gifts ; were a laborious, agricultural, and 
mining race, until driven by the inundation of the 
Celtic Gauls into the fastnesses of the Pyrenees, and, 
by the bruises of war, compelled to defend themselves. 
There they have remained, their jealousy of each 
other preventing the petty tribes into which they are 
divided from uniting, even sufficiently to maintain 
their independence. From their abhorrence of for- 
eigners they have remained comparatively pure, a 
fossil people, from an age immensely remote from the 
ken of history. They have retained, on their poor 
soil, their love of agriculture, and are still miners. 
Their costumes, dances, and amusements are like 
those of their immemorial ancestors, as is their ex- 
treme afiection for their dead. 

Ancient writers mention them as having arrived at 
a remarkable degree of civilization. They were noted 
for their success in mining, and were widely dispersed, 
even to the islands of Corsica and Sardinia. They 
had been several times invaded by Celtic tribes, who 
forced themselves over the Pyrenees, and were event- 
ually almost annihilated. 

From the traces left of allied tribes, it appears that 
the Iberians, Finns, and Lapps entered Europe from 
the north and east. Whether to them the rude re- 
mains of works of art so abundantly scattered are to 
be referred is a question of doubt. Some of the latter, 
mounds, piles of huge blocks of stone, and the lake- 



186 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OP HAN. 

dwellings of Switzerland may, with high probability, 
be referred to them. 

The mountains saved the Iberians ; their inhospitable 
climate, the Lapps and Finns. Crowded to the north, 
until they reached a land where the harvest was too 
unpromising to invite further pursuit, the severity 
of climate has told destructively on the Lapps ; so 
much so, that they are the lowest people of Europe. 
No instance better shows the effect of climate than 
the contrast presented between them and the Magyars. 
The former have a dusky complexion, scanty beard, 
protruding chin, high cheek-bones, slender limbs, ob- 
lique eyes ; in short, are the most unsightly of the 
tribes of Europe.; the latter are the most symmetri- 
cally formed, being models of physical perfection, and 
only by an occasional obliquity of the eyelids do they 
denote their descension from the Ostiaks, as ugly and 
disgusting as the Lapps. They are the only nomadic 
and heathen population of Europe. They have their 
reindeer and dogs, — their only domestic animals, — 
and their locality is determined by pasturage. 

The Finns are not inferior in physical development. 
Their complexion is dusky, and they have a serious 
and gloomy expression, with a strong tendency to 
superstition, and hence by nature lovers of the sub- 
terranean regions of mines. Wilful and morose, they 
do not change their own ways, nor learn ^ those of 
strangers. 

• While the other Turanian dialects have been in a 
great measure adulterated by wars, and Mendings 
with other peoples, the Finnic has, by isolation and 
early embodiment in sacred songs, been preserved in 



THE NORTH TURANIAN RACES. 187 

purity. The Finns are one of the best-cultivated of 
the Turanian races, and to them belongs the honor 
of producing and transmitting the Kalawala, one of the 
few great epic poems of the world, and almost the only 
one produced by the Turanian race. 

Europe has received great benefit from the Hunga- 
rians or Magyars. They have taught how to organise 
a constitutional government, which gives great liber- 
ties to subjects, yet holds them amenable to law. 
They also taught courtesy and dignity of manners. 
Their origin is proved by their language to be held 
in common with the Finns, Lapps,"^ and the Ostiaks 
who inhabit Bashkiria, situated at the northern ex- 
tremity of the Ural Mountains, through the passes of 
which they came from Asia. 

The Permians, Votiaks, Tscheremisses, Voguls, 
Ostiaks, are some of the principal tribes that inhabit 
the countries watered by the Vishera, Yiatka, Kama, 
Obi, Irtish, and the Uralian chain, the dialects of all 
of whom are allied to the Finnic. 

The Samoiedes are a race dwelling on the shores 
of the Frozen Ocean, and extending up the great 
rivers from the Gulf of Kara to Yenisei. 

They have a few reindeer, but subsist by hunting, 
and devour dead whales and marine animals that drift 
ashore. It has been found that traces of this people 
exist in the south of Siberia, and they appear to have 
been crowded towards the north, as the Lapps have 
been in Europe. Their traditions say that they came 
from Eastern countries. 

The dialects of the Samoiedes are closely allied 

* Strahlenberg, Ruysbroek. 



188 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

and are united with the Tschudic or Finnic and the 
Caucasian. The latter fact points to the time when 
they passed through the gates of the Caucasian 
Mountains. 

The Mongohan race is divisible into the Mongols 
proper, the Buriats, and the Kalmucks. The Mon- 
gols have been taken as representatives or types 
of the Turanian race, but do not represent it as well 
as some others. The countries around the Altai 
Mountains, especially to the north, have from imme- 
morial time been the home of these people, the lakes, 
mountains, and rivers retaining the names given by 
them. 

The Mongols are nomads, and inhabit Mongolia, a 
great steppe or plain north of China, and are scattered 
in Siberia. They are now ruled by governments they 
once overthrew. They are timid and credulous, but 
terrible when excited by vengeance or fanaticism. 

The Buriats wander in Siberia from the border of 
China to the Upper Lena. 

The Kalmucks' native country is the mountainous 
region on the frontier of Turkestan and China, but 
colonies have wandered to the Don and Volga, and 
into Siberia. They have high, prominent, and broad 
cheek-bones; small eyes, widely separated by a broad 
flat nose ; coarse jet-black hair, scarcely any eye- 
brows, and enormous ears, presenting a hideous 
physical aspect. 

The Turkish Race has largely figured in history; 
and its deeds partake of the wild steppes from which 
its hordes made their desperate springs on Europe. 
Its tribes are scattered from the mouth of the Lena 



THE NORTH TURANIAN RACES. 189 

on the shores of the Arctic Ocean to the frontiers of 
Hungary and Northern and Eastern Africa, reaching 
into Europe on one side and Southern Asia on the 
other. 

These tribes once received indiscriminately the 
name of Tartars ; but, as the Turks are the leading 
people, it is proper to designate all related tribes 
by their name. They appear to be incapable of im- 
provement. Living neighbors, or subjects, or con- 
querors of refined nations, they always have remained 
barbarians. They are equally unchanging in dialect ; 
and the hordes which have been separated beyond 
the reach of tradition can converse with each other. 
The Turk of Constantinople finds no difficulty in being 
understood by a Yakut from Siberia or a Tartar 
from Astrachan. 

The Turks first appeared to the northward of 
the Chinese provinces Shensi and Shansi probably 
about the beginning of our era, where, during a 
century, they engaged in a fierce war with the 
Chinese. Broken by famine, a portion united with the 
latter, and overthrew and expelled the other portion, 
who migrated westward. Tribes of Tungusian and 
Mongolian origin filled the vacuum thus created, to be 
in like manner expelled and thrown to the w^est in the 
third century, when the sullen sound of these hoarse 
human weaves was first heard by Europeans. Turkish 
tribes inhabit the Russian provinces of Kazan, Astra- 
chan, Siberia, and the Crimea. These are the Tartar 
hordes of the Czar. The language of the Crim-Tartar 
differs little from the Turk. 

The Turkomans wander with their herds over 



190 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

Northern Persia, Western Armenia, Southern Georgia, 
and the region east of the Caspian. They are a lively, 
intelligent people, who boast that they rest neither 
under the shadow of a tree nor the authority of a 
king. Their features are extremely Turanian ; of a 
coppery hue, and their physique is more wiry and 
lithe than the Osmanli. From them the celebrated 
Seljukian Turks descended. 

The UsBEKS are a closely related people, though 
more agricultural. Their capital is Bukara, and their 
country very extensive. 

The Turks of Turkestan are the remains of a once 
powerful nation, from which originated the celebrated 
Osmanli or Ottoman Turks, who are now the ruling 
class in all the Turkish possessions, numbering eleven 
or twelve millions, and forming the gentry and nobility 
of Turkey. Theirs is the polite and official language 
of Syria, Egypt, Tunis, and Tripoli, and is spoken 
through the southern provinces of Asiatic Russia, the 
provinces bordering the Caspian, and all Turkestan. 
In 1453 they conquered the eastern capital of the 
Eoman Empire, and have since made the city of Con- 
stantino the capital of their European possessions. 

The KiEGis occupied the south of Siberia, between 
the rivers Tom and the Yenisei ; but, in the beginning 
of the eighteenth century they were forced out by 
the Mongols, and now their hordes roam over the 
immense deserts or steppes of Great Tartary. 

The Yakuts are the most remote tribe of the 
Turkish family, and at the same time. have preserved 
their language in purity. They are scattered on the 
borders of the Northern Ocean, over a country the 



THE NORTH TURANIAN RACES. 191 

most desolate in the world, where the mean tempera- 
ture is 6° Reamur below freezing, and mercury is a 
solid two months in the year, and at the depth of a 
few feet, the earth is perpetually frozen. 

There are many tribes of Turks or Tartars in 
Siberia ; and the Kazan Turks in European Russia are 
interesting, as they are now changing from nomadic 
to agricultural life. 

The Tungusians wander over the vast area from 
Lake Baikal to the Sea of Okotsk. Their original 
home is Daouria, north of Corea and China. They 
extend along the Amoor and Usuri Rivers to the 
shores of the Eastern Ocean. Under the government 
of Russia, according to the animal they have domes- 
ticated and use, they are called Dog, Horse, and Rein- 
deer Tungusians. These roam over the trackless and 
interminable steppes, from the Yenisei to the Pacific 
Ocean. They are called Mandshus in China, having 
in 1644 conquered that immense empire, and ever 
since retained its government, filling all its oflBces, 
and being its soldiers. 

The Tungusic language is the lowest of the Tura- 
nian family, being more unadvanced than the Chinese. 
In Mandshu there are numbers of words without 
distinctive terminations, being used for noun, verb, 
adverb, and particle. This is the only Tungusian 
dialect having a literature. They are more muscular, 
of heavier make, than the Chinese, and have a physi- 
ognomy expressive of larger views, and more deter- 
minateness of purpose. Their complexion varies ; 
but the blonde, with blue eyes, light hair, and aqui- 
line nose, is not rare. 



192 THE OtllGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

The religion of the Mandshu is Buddhism ; of the 
Osmanli and those they govern, Mohammedanism ; and 
Christianity is professed in Siberia. 

On the northern limits of Asia, and like scattered 
fragments between the hordes of other races and isles 
of the Pacific, tribes are found which formerly were 
not assigned to any class because so little known. 
These are the Ostiaks of the Yenisei, the Yakagers, 
Kamtschadales, Ainos, Coretos, the Japanese and 
Lew-Chew Islanders. From a careful comparison of 
dialects, remains found in mounds, customs, and 
fragmentary speech still existing, it has been con- 
cluded that over the vast region of Northern Asia, 
from the Lew-Chew Islands, Japan, the Kuriles, Aleu- 
tians, and Kamtchatka, one race, the Ainos, held bar- 
barous possession. The Japanese and Lew-Chews 
have felt the influence of the Chinese from an early 
day. 

The Ainos or Kuriiians, who have given their name 
to this family, inhabit the eastern coast of Asia, and 
dependent islands. Ethnologically, this family resem- 
bles the other northern Asiatics, and their dialects are 
allied, especially the Aino, to the Samoiedes, and the 
nations of the Caucasus. The Japanese, who have, 
by the aid of Chinese civilization, and free infiltration 
of blood, advanced beyond all other members of this 
family, are described by travellers as a handsome peo- 
ple, with oval heads, regular features, and full round 
foreheads. Their language unquestionably places 
them in the Turanian class, and with the Tungusians. 

It is through these northern Asiatics we pass to the 
Esquimaux of the New World, and from thence to all 



THE NORTH TURANIAN RACES. 193 

its other innumerable Indian tribes. The Tschnktschi 
and Koriaks resemble the Esquimaux in manners and 
language, and it is from this northern region, at Behr- 
ing's Straits, or Aleutian Islands, that a connection 
exists facile for the passage of savages. From the 
Arctic Ocean across the equator to Terra-del-Fuego, 
the countless tribes into which the Indians are broken 
present a constant approach to one common type. In 
moral character and intellectual status, as well as in 
physical contour, they are alike. Humboldt says : 
" The Indians of New Spain have a general resem- 
blance to those who inhabit Canada, Florida, Peru, 
and Brazil. They have the same swarthy, and copper 
color, straight and smooth hair, small head, squat 
body, long eye, with the corners directed upwards 
towards the temples, prominent cheek-bones, thick 
lips, expressive of gentleness in the mouth, strongly 
contrasted with a gloomy and severe look." ^^We 
think that we perceive them all to be descended 
from the same stock, notwithstanding the prodigious 
diversity of languages which separate them from one 
another.'' 

There is a closer adherence to a common type be- 
tween the most aberrant American tribes, than the 
numbers of the Turkic or Tamulic classes. The dia- 
lects of the American tribes do not differ as much as 
some authors endeavor to prove ; and between those 
which make the widest departure there are generally 
connecting or intermediate forms. Few of these dia- 
lects have been carefully studied : and all of them are 
so subject to change, that a few years serves to render 
obsolete the old words, and introduce a new vocabu- 

13 



194 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

lary. None of these have ever had a literature, 
none have an alphabet, and to foreigners is assigned 
the task of writing their sounds by the use of foreign 
letters. How vague and unsatisfactory this method 
must be to all except those who, with a theory al- 
ready conceived, assert positively the absolute distinc- 
tion of race between petty tribes ! The dialects of 
the New World have been but partially studied ; but 
the facts brought to light point to a common source. 
Many dialects are related by their vocabularies, 
others by their grammatical structures. 

The idiom of the Indian dialects is very intricate, 
and among the most laborious and artfiflly contrived 
that any language possesses. Yet dialects as remote 
as those of the Incas of Peru, the Aztecs of Mexico, 
and the Six Nations of New York, maintain striking 
analogies in their constructional forms. The entire 
dissimilarity between the structure of the Indian dia- 
lect and the European, renders it almost impossible 
for an Indian to perfectly acquire the latter. 

There are two reasons why their structure should 
remain alike, while their vocabularies are lost- 
Structure is far more permanent than words, and the 
aggluterative method of formation in all these dia- 
lects is unfavorable to the preservation of the original 
or root-word. 

Barton has discovered " traces of the Samoiede 
dialects, unequivocally preserved in an immense por- 
tion of America ; '' and Vater has shown, " that in 
respect to most of the words denoting universal ideas, 
and sensible objects of perpetual recurrence, words 
may be found nearly resembling each other in some 



THE NORTH TURANIAN RACES. 195 

of the idioms of America, and some of those spoken 
in Northern Asia.'' The Indian skull is remarkably 
like that of the Asiatic or Turkic. Blumenbach 
pointed out their likeness. Humboldt asserts : ^' We 
cannot refuse to admit that the human species does 
not contain races resembling one another more nearly 
than the Americans, Mongols, Mandshus, and Ma- 
lays." In physical traits, in morals and intellect, and 
his nomadic- habits, the Indian resembles the Asiatic. 
The color of his skin and hair, his prominent cheek- 
bones, oblique eyelids, scanty beard, are peculiar 
marks of similarity. 

There is every reason to consider that the Incas 
and Aztecs were branches of the American race ; un- 
der the favorable auspices of soil and climate, they 
began a civilization of a unique and astonishing char- 
acter ; and, had they remained undisturbed, would 
have .risen to the glory of the empires of classic re- 
nown. They constructed temples of hewn porphyry, 
measured the year, and properly divided it by the 
phases of the moon, possessed an advanced system of 
picture-writing, had literature composed of poetry 
and history, and a complicated government. Their 
traditions stated that they came from the north-west, 
in which they agree with the traditions of other tribes 
who refer their ancient homes in that direction. 

The Koriaks of Asia, as before stated, are allied to 
the Esquimaux. The latter stand, according to Blu- 
menbach, exactly intermediate between Mongolic and 
American races. The American form of skull, although 
distinct, has more points of resemblance to, than of 
difference from, the Asiatic type. Physical characters 



196 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

alone are not sufficiently marked to refer them either 
to the American or Asiatic families. Their language 
is alHed to the American. 

If the American Indians entered the New World 
from the north-west, the tribes left on their path of dis- 
persion would partake more of the original type than 
those who were further removed. Thus the Celts, 
pushed furthest from the centre of the Indo-European 
nationalities, have lost almost "^every trace of their 
origin, while those Aryan tribes scattered in the 
Caucasus are closely allied to the Europeans and the 
Hindoos. 

A volume might be filled by a. mere enumeration 
of the tribes scattered from the Arctic Ocean to 
Terra-del-Fuego ; but it were idle to tire the memory 
with the unpronounceable names of people who have 
no history ; who can never have ; who act no part in 
the magnificent drama of civilizg^tion. Like the wild 
animal, the Indian perishes by the contact of superior 
races. No efibrt, however benevolent and long-exerted, 
can preserve him. He will not be converted by mis- 
sionaries, he will not labor, he will not be civilized. 
Hence, all that is desirable is to show them of common 
origin, and refer that origin to Asia. 

The New World has not a single indication of having 
been the original home of this or of any race. There 
are no indications, as in the Old World, of an earlier 
preoccupying people. On the contrary, there is every 
indication of recent occupancy. A people thinly 
spread over a great wilderness 'will not advance, and 
there was no crowding in America. There had not 
been time for this to occur. The Indians were 



THE NORTH TURANIAN RACES. 197 

savages, having no domestic animal but the dog, which 
was httle more than a tamed wolf. Their dialects 
were in the polysynthetic stage ; they used only the 

. simplest hieroglyphics ; and had not achieved, except 
in Peru and Mexico, arty degree of civilization. They 
had not had time to work out any great result. 

The Caucasus presents many fragments of Turanian 
people, thrown off while the waves of that family 
were passing into Europe. The multitudinous dialects 
of this ^' Mountain of Languages '' has been a perplex- 
ing subject to philologists. Many of these languages, 
spoken only by small and insignificant tribes, are 
wholly distinct, presenting scarcely a trace of affinity 
with any other. Only by the keen intellects of such 
students as Miiller have the faint foot-prints of their 
origin been traced. 

The famed Georgians and Circassians are the lead- 

, ing tribes of this region. 

The Georgians 

inhabit the country lying between the Eiver Alazan and 
the Black Sea, the Kur, and the Caucasian Mountains. 
Some travellers have thrown doubts on the remarkable 
beauty of the Georgians ; but it is conceded by the 
most reliable authorities that they are ^^tall, slender, 
of noble bearing, with regular features, aquiline nose, 
finely formed mouth, dark complexion, dark eyes and 
hair,'' and that the females are more beautiful than 
the Circassians, although not so fair. They appear to 
be descendants of the old Iberians and Colchians, and 
present a type of features eminently Aryan, and hence, 
according to our ideas, eminently beautiful. 



198 the origin and antiquity of man. 

The Abassians 

are a pastoral and predatory people, inhabiting the 
north-western portion of the Caucasus. Their language 
has become distinct; and only by closest research can 
its affinity to 

The Circassian 

be determined. These term themselves Adigi. Their 
country is elevated, cold, and covered by vast forestsr 
The men are tall, slender about the loins, with small 
feet, and uncommon strength, and possess a very 
martial bearing. Although the women are not all 
^' Circassian beauties,'' there are proportionately a 
greater number that Would pass for such than amongst 
any other polished nation. Their forms are univer- 
sally elegant, their complexion white, and their hair 
soft brown or black. 

There are a multitude of tribes classed under the 
names of Middle and Eastern Circassians, all of whom 
speak dialects emphatically their own, and all agreeing 
in their high-toned spirit of independence and their 
pastoral and lawless habits. Klaproth has traced 
these dialects, with great labor, to a common source, 
and shown that they are all related to the dialects of 
Northern Asia, and especially to the Finnic. 

The map gives Russia dominion over all these tribes, 
but they are virtually free. They seem at a very 
remote period to have embraced Christianity; but now 
their religion is a strange mixture of Christianity, 
Mohammedanism, and Paganism. That the dialects 
of this mountainous region should so widely diverge 
from what must have been their common parentage, 



THE NORTH TURANIAN RACES. 199 

is not anomalous. It is what we should expect, and 
what is always found in such regions. A sparse 
population inhabiting vast forests, like the American 
Indians, or deserts like those of Africa, or isolated in 
narrow valleys by impassable mountain barriers, are 
left to themselves ; and their mother-tongue becomes 
in a short time, by the natural growth of speech, a 
dead or rather obsolete dialect. The wonder is why 
all traces of a tongue do not more rapidly disappear ; 
how the roots of words and grammatical forms are so 
tenaciously preserved. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE SOUTH TURANIAN RACES. 

The "Hill Tribes," or Dravidians of Hindostan. — Pritchar^'s Failure.— 
The Bhills. — Pariahs. — Gonds. — Peoples of the Valleys of the 
Ganges and Brahmapootra. — Siamese. — Tai Tribes. — Bengalese. — 
Thugs. — The Polynesians, From whence Dispersed ? — Malays. 
— They are the Nomads of the Sea. — Vast Geographical Extent of this 
Race. — Turanian Fragments in Africa. — Extent of Dispersion not an 
Argument against Community of Descent. 

The Southern Branch of the vast Turanian family 
embraces the under-stratum of the population of the 
immense plains of Southern Asia, and thence extends 
over the islands of the South Sea. As in Europe, 
these races are there stratified one above the other. 
Vestiges only remain of the first; and the second is a 
conquered and persecuted race, only preserved from 
the Aryan Hindoos by the impregnable recesses of their 
jungles, or the deadly miasma of the districts they 
inhabit. They speak a language of their own, which 
is strongly Turanian, as is their physical structure.:. In 
India these are called the '^Hill tribes,'\or Dravidian 
peoples. They live in a miserable condition, are. out- 
lawed and despised by the Hindoos, and so undeveloped 
that ma^iy tribes find it difficult to protect themselves 
against the tigers. 

The Dravidian language possesses the traits of 
agglutination, grammatical structure, and vocalization, 

200 



THE SOUTH TURANIAN RACES. 201 

observed in the Finnic, which may be compared to 
the softest Dravidian dialects, while the Magyar may 
be compared to those roughest in consonants. 

The debris of this race are found in the ^^ heart of 
the Mahanuddy as far as Cape Cormorin, being the 
Bhills, Tudas, Meras, Goles, Gonds, the Soudrahs, Pa- 
riahs, (fee. The second inhabit the northern section 
towards the Himalayas ; such are the Radjis or Doms. 
The third occupy the angle that separates the two 
peninsulas of India, and which is distinguished by 
the name of Assam,, as well as that mountainous 
band constituting the frontier between Bengal and 
Thibet, as well as the islands of Ceylon, the Mal- 
dives, and the Laquedives/' 

In no place has Pritchard, in his laborious work, so 
signally failed as in his description of the people of 
India. He describes them a^ though they were of 
one race. 

Our knowledge has greatly extended, since the date 
of his work, and light has been thrown on the unique 
system of castes prevalent in that country. It would 
be foreign to my aim to enter into a detail of tribes 
whose uncouth names are without interest. I desire 
to present only the salient features of each, so that a 
complete view may be obtained of the races of men 
as they exist at present. 

The Bhills are of short stature, their hair curls, 
and their lips are thick, and complexion very dark. 
The Meras, living in the mountains, resemble them. 
They must have been among the earliest 'tribes that 
entered India. 
^ The Pariahs have been subject to the Tamuls, 



202 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

The latter have been a leading tribe. They show a 
strong affinity to the Mongolian or Turanian type. 
Their jaws and mouth are very prominent, their 
cheek-bones high and large, their nose is short and 
club-shaped, nostrils round, eyes small and half shut, 
their lids oblique, ears large, lips thick, beard deficient, 
and color brown. 

They appear to have been the last tribe of Turanian 
stock that entered India. Their language has reached 
a grammatical perfection in advance of the Tungusic 
or Chinese ; and they possessed a considerable civili- 
zation before exposed to Aryan influences, and hence 
have successfully resisted the Sanskrit dialect. 

The Ghondes or Khondes inhabit the dense forests 
reeking with miasma. They are in the lowest state of 
barbarism. Their foreheads are low and broad, eyes 
small, sunken, and reddish, thick lips, skin black, and 
hair reddish-black, and sometimes woolly. They pre- 
sent a picture of extreme ferocity. 

The inhabitants of the north-east countries of India, 
the valleys of the Brahmapootra and the Ganges, are 
.allied to the Tamuls and Thibetans. They are much 
lower socially and intellectually than the Tamuls, are 
more fierce and dependent on the chase, and have 
fewer religious observances. They are called Bhoti- 
yas ; and, although among the first tribes which entered 
India, from their position they were the last to sur- 
render their indepencfence. Among them is observed 
many of the* curious customs by which their alliance 
is shown with the tribes of Polynesia, such as exposing 
their dead for four days on scaffolds, before burning 
them. The Bhotiyas inhabit the high declivities of" 



THE SOUTH TURANIAN RACES. 203 

the Himalayas to a height exceeding ten thousand 
feet. The foot of those mountains are peopled by 
tribes remarkably fine and healthy, although their 
country is so pestilential that no other human being 
can live in it. Prom this region the Bhotiyas spread 
into Burmah, along the Irrawaddy and Brahmapootra. 
Over all this vast area innumerable wild tribes are 
spread. Their language is much less advanced than 
the Tamulic, belonging to an earlier age. 

The Siamese, Ahom, Laos, Khamti, and E^assia people, 
have received the distinctive name of Ta'i tribes. 

Their country possesses advantages for agriculture, 
mining, and commerce, unsurpassed by any in the 
world ; yet these vagabond races allow it to run to 
waste. The Anamese are remarkable for the per- 
fection of the Turanian type which they present. The 
language of the Tai tribes is monosyllabic, like the 
Chinese, and is marked by a similar manner of musical 
accent or intonation. 

The disagreement of travellers in regard to the 
morals and intellect of the East-Indians results from 
the diversity of races which exists there ; but the 
prevailing idea is that they are, as a whole, a mild 
and orderly people, easily governed. If it were not 
so, 50,000 Englishmen could not hold, as they now do, 
135,000,000 Hindoos in subjection. 

In Bengal, each English magistrate has jurisdiction 
over a million men, and in Madras there is but one 
English official to half a million, and four districts 
where there is only one to 300,000. Yet, perlaps, 
there is no country iu the world where more crime 
exists, or where it takes as horrid a form. There 



204 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

is no country in the world where the puerile dis- 
tinctions of rank and birth are carried to so ruinous 
an extent, where poverty is so helpless and hopeless. 
The Turanian people are a's savage as their brethren 
of the steppes of Tartary, and far more insidious and 
crafty. The Thugs, professional murderers, are drawn 
from their ranks. 

The Polynesians [Malaic]. The groups of islands 
over the great Southern Ocean present many interest- 
ing facts in the study of mankind. Over this im- 
mense waste of waters, a peculiar race of men are 
disseminated. There is scarcely an island in all this 
expanse, however small, or newly raised above the 
sea, but is inhabited^ and, although conforming to a 
common type, each of these isolated tribes have 
traits peculiar to themselves, aiid their dialects vary 
in every possible degree. This might be predicated, 
on consideration of the immense tracts of ocean which 
intervene between these islands, and the slight inter- 
course existing between members of different groups. 
A people of few wants have few words, and the fewer 
there are, the more liable of being lost. It has 
been a received theory that all these multitudinous 
tribes were descendants from Malays ; but it is now 
rendered certain that at least three waves of people 
have been thrown over this expanse, the first being 
the Australian or Oriental Negro, and the last two 
Papiias or Polynesians proper, and Malays. I have 
already spoken of the former. The Polynesians are 
scattered over the islands between New Zealand and 
Easter Isle, north to the Sandwich, and westward to 
the New Hebrides, and as a mixed people over the 



THE SOUTH TURANIAN RACES. 205 

entire expanse of Polynesia. They are a daring race 
of sailors, who will trust themselves, for weeks and 
months, on the frailest raft, to the winds and the sea. 
It has been conjectured that this people and the Ma- 
lays descended from a great nationality once occupy- 
ing these islands. Judging by words held in common, 
this anterior nationality had made considerable advance 
in agriculture and arts, understanding the use of 
gold and iron, to fabricate cloth, and had domesticated 
the buffalo, hog, duck, and fowl. To this early people 
the colossal images scattered over many of the Pacific 
Islands are referred. These races are the only ones 
that have been persistently cannibals. 

From whence was this aboriginal race . dispersed ? 
If we go to the Hill tribes of Hindostan, we shall 
find the object of our search. They dwell on the low 
lands, — where the malaria is death to any other race, 
— despised and outlawed. Their customs are widely 
dijBFerent from the Hindoos. They have no castes, 
widows remarry, they shed blood in their sacrifices, 
indulge in intoxication, bury and . not burn their 
dead. Their institutions are peculiar; their rehgion, 
fetichism ; and they occasionally indulge in cannibal- 
ism. This race once occupied all Southern Asia, as 
its western division did all Europe. They are the 
Dravidian Turanians. 

By comparison of dialects, the languages of these Dra- 
vidians and the Polynesians are found to be related to 
the Chinese and Thibetans, and all the languages 
spoken by the yellow race. The closer alliance of 
ancient Thibetan and Burmese than their modern 
forms, indicates that they are parallel developments 



206 THE OEIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 

from a parent tongue, from which the Chinese origi- 
nated. 

By this alliance of the languages in the south-east 
of Asia, it becomes certain that the yellow race once 
occupied its whole extent. Even the wild tribes in 
the defiles of the Mountains of Assam, wherever they 
were driven by conquering Burmese, Chinese, or Ary- 
ans, by their monosyllabic language indicate their 
alliance to the yellow race. 

Tribes remarkably similar to these wild clans of 
Assam, inhabit Malacca and Sumatra ; mark them- 
selves in tattoo every time they slay an enemy, as is 
observed in the Islands of the South Sea; and, as 
among the natives of Borneo, a young man must not 
wed until he has slain a certain number of enemies. 
A tribe in Assam expose their dead on scaffolds, as do 
many Polynesians, and those of the Sunda Islands. It 
is by comparison of languages that philologists are 
enabled to pronounce the trans-gangetic peninsula 
the cradle of the Malay o-Polynesian race. 

The dialects of the sporadic islands of Polynesia 
cluster around the Siamese and Burman ; but, in the 
ratio of their removal from this point, they become 
changed by mingling with other languages and 
isolation from the parent stock, and their original 
character in many instances is lost. A constant 
stream of Thibeto-Chinese were passing across the 
trans-gangetic peninsula, and dispersing over the 
Southern Ocean. The Dravidian tribes, issuing from 
the ' same stock, but at a remoter age, commingled 
with this stream as it flowed seaward. 

But this Polynesian race had another element of 



THE SOUTH TURAMAN RACES. 207 

change added to this by the infiltration of the blood 
of the still older Oriental Negro, an Australian race, 
whom they everywhere met, and either dispersed or 
absorbed. 

The Malays appear to have been the last wave sent 
off from the trans-gangetic peninsula. They are the 
nomads of the sea ; a commercial people from imme- 
morial time, who have occupied all the desirable posi- 
tions in the South Sea, and rapidly extend their 
influence to the south and east. Their language is 
diffused over a wider area than any other, extending 
from Madagascar to Easter Isle, from Formosa to New 
Zealand, or over 70° latitude and 200° longitude. 
They first settled on the continent in 1160, and in the 
succeeding century embraced Mohammedanism, and 
have ever been zealous in propagating that faith. 
When they were confined to Sumatra, the Javanese 
were lords of the Indian Ocean, carrying on an exten- 
sive com'merce, reaching Madagascar on one side, and 
Amboyna on the other. Restlessly they have ex- 
tended themselves over this vast expanse, confined 
on the Asiatic shores by China, and from America by 
the vastness of the intervening ocean. The North 
Turanians are the wandering robbers of the desert 
and steppe ; the Malay, his southern brother, the rob- 
ber, the corsair of the sea. 

There are fragments of the Turanian family exist- 
ing so far removed that criticism has been active 
against their classification as such. Far down in the 
heart of Africa, between Lakes Yeou and Tsad, are a 
people known as Kanuri, of whose language Mr. Nor- 
ris writes : " Its nouns are fully declined by past fixed 



208 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

syllables ; its roots are not subject to any modifica- 
tions ; it forms its plural by adding a syllable ; it has 
an accusative case ; it uses pronominal affixes ; it has 
negative verbs ; and its verbs have distinct personal 
endings, which are, however, unconnected with exist- 
ing pronouns. There appear also some traces of the 
Tartar vocalic harmony.^^ This people are distinct 
from the negro, and even more congenial to the table 
lands of Asia than the deserts of Africa, so far have 
they preserved their ancestral physiognomy. We 
mast be ready to admit that no dispersion, however 
wide, throws any objection to community of descent. 



CHAPTER X, 



THE ARYAN RACES. 

Who are Aryans? — Origin of, and Attainments in Civilization before the 
Separation of its Component Races. — A Sketch of the Method of Linguis- 
tic Research. — The Vendidad, and Zend-avesta. — Date of the Founda- 
tion of the Median Empire. — Indic Branch. — Prakrit, Sanskrit, and 
Zend. — The Gypsies. — The Iranic, or Persian, Branch. — Effect of 
tire religious system of Zoroaster. — The Language of the Magi. — 
Pure Persian. — The Afghans. — Buchars. — Kurds. — Belooches. — 
Armenians. — Assetes. — Parsees. — Guebres. — Northern Branch. — 
Pelasgi. — Thracians. — Kelts. — Sclavonians. — Lithuranians. — The 
Teutonic Races. — Their History, Customs, and Languages. — From 
whence came the Waves of People that devastated Rome ? — Goths. — 
Franks. — Saxons. — Alemanii. — Vandals, Longobards. — Huns. — Re- 
lations of Languages. — Conclusions. 

The greatest ethnological discovery of modern times 
is that which by comparative philology defines the 
boundaries of the Indo-European, or Aryan, races, 
and refers them to a common stock inhabiting the 
high lands of Asia. The blonde Scandinavian, the 
phlegmatic German, the irascible Kelt, the Sclavonic 
Russian, the energetic Anglo-American, the dreamy 
Hindoo, the Greek, the Latin, and the Persian, have 
been proved to belong to a common parentage. 

The term Indo-European is more objectionable than 
Aryan. The latter is Sanskrit, and originally meant, 
"one who tills,^' in opposition to Turanian^ which 
referred to the nomadic horsemen; but it came to 

209 



210 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

mean, "noble," "of. good family/' as. distinctive to 
Soudra and Pariah, ignoble and despised. This family 
contains the Indie [Hindus], Persian, Celtic, Italic, 
Illyric, Hellenic, Sclavonic, and Teutonic peoples. 

The study of their dialects conclusively shows, that, 
before their separation, and previous to the departure 
of the first Celtic and Hindoo emigrations, they had 
attained the civilization of agricultural nomads. They 
had learned the art of ploughing, making roads, 
houses, ships; of spinning, weaving, sewing; and 
could count, at least, as far as a hundred, using the 
decimal svstem. Thev had domesticated the horse, 
cow, sheep, and dog ; were acquainted with the mofet 
useful metals ; and armed themselves with iron hatch- 
ets, &c. They recognized relationships, the marriage 
contract ; they fixed by law the relations of right and 
wrong ; framed rude governments of chieftancies. 
How is this known ? How do we know that in the 
night of ages previous to historic ken, that, through 
the gates of the Caucasus poured the living waves of 
Kelts, Teutonians, Sclaves, and Lithuranians, driving 
before them the indigenous population? That the 
Pelasgi, the Phrygians, Lydians, and other nations, all 
rolled towards the west? That the almost fabled 
Pelasgi, reaching Italy and Greece, broke into Gre- 
cian and Latin tribes ? Because, in aU the diverse 
tongues which are classed as Aryan, from the old Norse 
of Iceland to the confines of Hindostan, the primitive 
names given to the above-mentioned domestic animals, 
metals, and objects, are identical in their elements. 
That a single name should be found in them all, applied 
to the same object, would be improbable ; but that a 



THE ARYAN RACES. 211 

great majority of such names should agree, is impos- 
sible on any other theory than that of a common 
origin, especially in the system of numbers and their 
names. The word for sheep, in Sanskrit, is avis ; in 
Latin, ovis ; in Greek, ois. For yoke, in Sanskrit, 
jui^am; Latin j J ugam; Greek, zagon. 

This agreement runs entirely through these entire 
languages, forming a basis as sure as historic record 
from which to calculate the exact attainments they 
had made at the period of their separation. They 
could count, because all these nations count in the 
same manner. They made houses and carts, and 
used salt, and counted time by the lunar divisions 
of the year, because the names of all these are the 
same in all Aryan dialects. 

The similarity extends deeper than words ; it 
enters into the structure, and all these dialects have 
almost identically the same grammar, showing that 
they had attained their present structure before the 
separation occurred. And, remarkable as it may ap- 
pear, few, if any, roots have been added since that 
period ; the changes in the languages being only new 
combinations of existing elements. 

The most ancient and sacred writings of the Per- 
sians, the Vendidad, places the home of their fathers 
in eastern Turkistan, at the source of the Oxus and 
Oaxartes. The Hindoos have no tradition relating to 
this subject. The earliest Vedic hymns show them 
to have been on the sources of the Indus, contending 
with, and vanquishing, the primitive Turanian tribes. 
The Zend-avesta agrees with the Vendidad, and even 



212 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

now the prevailing dialect of those countries, fixed 
upon as the source of these emigrations, is Aryan. 

It is puerile to attempt to give the dates of these 
migrations. We can only give the order of their suc- 
cession. Bunsen supposes the Aryans entered India 
from 4000 to 3000 B.C. Ducker places the formation 
of the Vedas at from 1800 to 1500 B. C, and Rawlin- 
son places the emigrations which founded the Median 
Empire at from 1160 to 640 B. C. These dates, how- 
ever, are not reliable. All we actually know is that 
the Aryan family was the last to appear on the stage. 
The Semite and Turanian had created great empires 
while they were still savages. But with this lateness 
of maturity came a vigor and power which soon placed 
the Aryan at the head of all the families of mankind. 
In science, in philosophy, in arts, in law, in all that 
goes to make civilization in its highest sense, they 
stand far in advance. Applying knowledge to the 
forces of nature, they have made bulwarks and forti- 
fications of them, and, thus defended, bid defiance to 
the savage Turanian, who has so often overthrown the 
civilizations of the past. Only the inaccessibility of 
his haunts can save the Turanian, or even the lower 
members of the Aryan, from the sway of the higher. 
Thus it is that the European-Aryan meets the effemi- 
nate Indo-Aryan, and the latter is subjugated to the 
genius of the former. The Aryan is a proud and en- 
ergetic race. Already its members talk of making 
their dialects the universal tongue ; and one, at least, 
has extended its empire around the world. 

From this ancestral Aryan people two great streams 
diverging, flowed, one over the Hindoo-Kosh into Hin- 



THE ARYAN RACES. 213 

dostan, the other through the Caucasus into Europe. 
The first is called the southern, the latter the northern 
branch. 

The southern branch is divided into Indic^ and 
Iranic. We have shown that a considerable advance 
was made before separation. The two branches, 
Iranic and Indie, remained united for a much longer 
time, and after their separation a close intimacy existed 
for a long period. This is shown by the words they 
hold in common, which the northern branch does not 
possess. 

The ancient dialect of the Indie was the Sanskrit 
and Prakrit ; that of the Iranic, the Zend. 

Sanskrit with the Brahmin is stiU a living tongue, 
preserved in its purity. In it their sacred books are 
written, and thiis hidden from the vulgar. The chro- 
nology of the Hindoos is a fable prompted by egotism. 
All we know of their earl}^ history is by comparison 
of the Sanskrit with the Zend, by which it appears 
that the two ran nearly parallel until the reformation 
of Zoroaster. When the Indie branch pushed through 
the Hindoo-Kosh, we have already seen how the Tu- 
ranians were affected. We must, however, place a 
vast interval of time between the emigration of the 
latter and former. The Dravidian, or Turanian, had 
made a great advance from savage life before crushed 
by the stronger Aryan. 

The Sanskrit, or its parent dialect, was the spoken 
language of the Indie branch when it entered India ; 
and long ere the Greeks knew- of the Indus, it had 
acquired its refined polish and cultivation. The de- 
scription of Herodotus and Dionysius of this people 



214 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

is perfectly appropriate to-day, so completely stagnant 
have they remained since the great effort they put 
forth in the subjugation of the Turanians, who occu- 
pied the soil before them. The present Hindostanee 
dialects are outgrowths of the Sanskrit, as is shown 
by nine-tenths of its roots being referable to that 
tongue. 

The Gypsies belong to this family, as proved by 
Grellman by the numerous words of tlieir vocabulary 
which agree with Hindostanee, and especially with 
the idiom of the Bazeegurs. " Palas observes that the 
language of the Gypsies very much resembles that of 
the Hindoos. Resorting for the purpose of trade to 
Astrachan, from the Indian province of Multan, they 
entered Europe in the fifteenth century, and are now 
widely dispersed over Asia and Europe, and a few 
bands have crossed the ocean, and infest America. 
Their physiognomy is Eastern, their complexion dark, 
and their form like the Hindoos. 

There are many clans of Kelts and Saxons who pro- 
fess to be Gypsies, but they are distinguished by their 
shoic of work. They are tinkers, are itinerant cob- 
lers, or peddlers. The Gypsy has discovered how to 
live without, and he will not under any emergency 
make the slightest effort. He prefers starvation. He 
regards the plodding laborer as his lawful prey. His 
vagabond race are without a history, and they de- 
serve none. No race, not even the Jew, has pre- 
served with greater tenacity their peculiar type. 
From the snows of Norway, through the mountains 
of Spain, to the burning sands of Africa, they speak 
the same language, are of nearly the same complexion, 



THE ARYAN RACES. 215 

and have the same marauding habits. Everywhere 
despised and scorned, a foreigner wherever he pitches 
his tent, an outlaw, a jocky, a thief. The civiHzation 
and Christianity of the people among whom he is cast 
are nothing to him. He is the identical Pagan he was 
four hundred years ago when he entered Europe. It 
is said there are exceptions ; and in Russia they follow 
the trade of the smith, and work in silver and gold; 
but it is doubtful if such are not spurious. Nor have 
they ever shown the least tendency to mingle with 
other races, and hence, with their roving habits, the 
preservation of type. 

They have a tawny complexion, black piercing eyes, 
black hair, high cheek-bones, projecting jaws, narrow 
mouth, and agile form. The young women are occa- 
sionally pretty, but the men and old women are ugly. 

Their morals are depraved. They accept alike all 
religions, as interest dictates ; but they have no word 
to express the idea of Grod or immortality, and hence 
cannot have those ideas. Nor have they a literature, 
except fragments of rude songs handed down verbally 
from generation to generation. They are honest with 
one another ; and, however rough and degraded, the 
females are chaste, even when panderers for others. 
Their whole number is computed at 5,000,000. 

The Iranic, or Persian, Branch. The ancient dia- 
lect of Persia, the Zend, is most clearly allied to the 
Sanskrit. It is preserved in the sacred book called 
the Zend-avesta; in inscriptions of Cyrus, Darius, 
and Xerxes, in the Pehlevi ; in the epic poem of 
Firdusi and the spoken language of Persia in its cor- 
rupted form. 



216 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

Persia, the seat of the Tranic family, has been the 
battle-ground of contending ralces. Over its plains 
and mountains are scattered fragmentary tribes of the 
three great flivisions of mankind. The Turanians and 
Semites are wanderers and traders; the Iranians are 
the tillers of the earth and the people of cities. 

Could th^ mystery which involves the history of 
Persia previous to the reign of 'Cyrus the Great be 
penetratedj light would be thrown on the now obscure 
problem of the cause of the separation and origin of 
the Aryans. Persia, before his time, has no written 
history ; but, like all other nations, she has a brilliant 
heroic age, " where lemshid is said to have built the 
palaces of Istakhar, and Rustan fought upon his hip- 
pogri£f against the warriors of Afrasiab." These 
traditions lose themselves in the dreamy clouds of 
the past. In the absence of positive proof of the 
existence of an ancient Persian Empire previous to 
historic time, it must b.e supposed, in accordance with 
the testimony of ancient Greek historians, and, as the 
traditions of the East imply, that the vast regions af- 
terwards united under that powerful monarchy were 
occupied by a people similar in language and manners 
to the ancient Hindoos. 

The religious system of Zoroaster, and the magnifi- 
cent works of art, remains of which still exist in Iran; 
refined literature and poetry, vestiges of which are 
preserved, — all date from the foundation of theMedo- 
Persian Empire and hierarchy of the famous Magi. 
The language of the Magi bore similar relations to 
the common speech of the Persians that Sanskrit, the 
speech of the Brahmans, does to Hindostanee. It could 



THE ARYAN RACES. 217 

not have been a foreign tongue, as the Magi were in- 
digenous. ' It appears to have been the language of 
Media and Northen Persia. The Zend is closely re- 
lated to Sanskrit, and they who used it as a vernacular 
idiom must have been closely allied to the Hindoos. 
The other dialects of Persia, although farther removed 
from the parent-stock, are unquestionably referable to 
the same source. One branch, the Parsee, bears a 
striking resemblance to the German, and may be con- 
sidered as the connecting-link uniting the Gothic or 
German with the Primitive, or Pre-Sanskrit, tongue. 
The preservation of Zend and Sanskrit by a favored 
priestly class is exactly paralleled by the preserva- 
tion of Latin by the Catholic Church. Had the latter 
had its own way, the Bible, its liturgies and hymns, 
would never have been translated, but have remained 
in the language in which they were composed. The 
sacred books of the Zend-avesta and Vedas represent 
the Zend and Sanskrit as they then existed; but, while 
they remained stationary, the vulgar tongue changed, 
until they became sealed books except to those who 
made them a daily study. So the Bible was written 
in the common tongue ; but a few hundred years 
placed it beyond the knowledge of the vulgar. 

Thus we see there is no necessity for supposing 
the Magi .were of a foreign race. They rather ^rew 
out of the desire for a religious order to translate 
and expound the sacred books, a want which has been 
felt and met in all ages, and made themselves neces- 
sary by sealing those books from the vulgar. 

The pure Persian presents a high Aryan type. His 
face is oval, features regular, complexion is usually 



218 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

brown, eyebrows long and black, eyes large and black, 
stature not tall. Allied to the Persian are many fami- 
lies whose importance necessitates their mention. 

The Afghans are a numerous and powerful people, 
inhabiting the mountains to the north of the plains of 
the Indus, and the southern declivities of the Hindoo- 
Kosh. They are a rude and warlike race, with a 
striking Semitic cast of features. They call them- 
selves Pushtun. Their language, the Pushtu, is 
spoken from* the valley of Pishin to Kaflfaristan. Al- 
though an unmixed race, they present great variations, 
according to the climate of their respective territories, 
from those on the low-lands of the Indus, who are al- 
most black, to those of the high table-lands of the West 
who are as fair as Europeans. 

Of their innumerable wandering hordes, the Dura- 
nis of Western Afghanistan are the most civilized. 
They are educated in Persian literature, and are 
strongly attached to their country, and their religion, 
which is the worship of the sun. Their holy city is 
Kandahar. Seven centuries ago, the Afghans over- 
run India, and inflicted the greatest cruelty on that 
unhappy land, until Tamerlane led the Mongolians, 
and swept the last Afghan dynasty away forever. 

The Belooches inhabit the country lying between 
Afghtnistan and the Indian Ocean, having Sind on the 
east, and Persia on the west. Over this vast territory 
roam the hordes of Belooches and Brahooes, the two 
great divisions into which this people are divided. 
The Belooches are pastoral, dwelling in felt-tents, and 
moving from place to place, as the necessities of pas- 
turage or water indicate. The Brahooes, are still 



THE ARYAN RACES. 219 

more wandering and savage, perpetually moving, 
though they prefer the high, cold mountain pastures. 
The language of the former is connected closely to 
the Persian, while that of the latter is more strongly 
allied to the Hindoo. 

The Buchars are the dwellers in the towns of Great 
and Little Bucharia, between the Caspian Sea and the 
borders of China. They have beeti referred to Tartar 
origin ; but Klaproth has shown them to be decidedly 
Persian. The cities of Balkh, Sarmarcand, and Bok- 
hara have been, in the eyes of the people of the East, 
the wonder of the world. They have undoubtedly 
inhabited this region since the time of the ancient 
Persian Empire. 

The Kurds inhabit the mountains of Kurdistan, and 
are scattered as far as the Persian Gulf, and into Rus- 
sia. They are considered direct descendants from the 
Karduchians, mentioned by Xenophon. They are di- 
vided into nobles or rulers, and peasants. The latter 
are hard-featured, with sunken-eyes, and abrupt lines 
of face, and live in a state of great misery and oppres- 
sion ; but the former are a handsome people, with al- 
most Grecian cast of features. Their language is a 
dialect of the Persian, with a mixture of Arabic and 
Turkish words. It is not taught in their schools, and 
has no Avritten form. 

They are warlike, and live by plunder, escaping to 
their mountain fastnesses. The Turkish government 
on the west, and the Persian on the east, are endeav- 
oring with a strong hand to suppress their outrages, 
and, by a system of wholesale transplanting and dena- 
tionalizing, will, in a short time, annihilate the race. ^ 



220 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

North of Persia^ and stretching across the isthmus be- 
tween the Black Sea and the Caspian, lie the Caucasus, 
or, as it has been termed by the Persians, '^ the moun- 
tain of languages/' Through this isthmus flowed the 
great streams of Aryan and Turanian people into Eu- 
rope ; and all have left eddies or fragments in these 
mountain gorges. In Herodotus' time the same mix- 
ture prevailed, and Greek merchants passing that re- 
gion were accompanied by seven interpreters speak- 
ing different languages. The Turanians are much the 
most numerous. Although nominally Russian terri- 
tory, yet these mountaineers are virtually independ- 
ent, and the Ru"ssian mails can only be carried by an 
armed escort. 

Contiguous to this region lies Armenia, which from 
remotest ages has been the battle-field of contending 
races, often conquered by inferiors. Yet, in a remark- 
able manner, its people have preserved their rich in- 
tellectual and moral endowments, their religious sys- 
tems, customs, manners, and language. Their origin 
is obscure. When they held intercourse with the Ro- 
mans, they were already nearly the same as now. 
Strabo referred them to Greek origin ; but his conclu- 
sions cannot be sustained. The facts he states are of 
more value. He says that the Armenians and Modes 
had the same worship and religious rites as the Per- 
sians, to which they added the licentious rites of An- 
aitis. Their religion was that of the Magi, but is 
now a strange mixture of Christianity and paganism. 

In the fifth century, Missrob invented an Armenian 
alphabet, and translated the Bible. From that date 
its literary history commences. 



THE ARYAN RACES. 221 

By conquest, voluntary and forced emigration, and 
their love of trade, the Armenians are widely scattered 
over Europe and Asia ; yet they ever, like the Jew, 
look with longing eye and unchanged affection to 
their native land. 

They are more honest and intelligent than their 
Turkish masters, and far superior in agriculture. 
They profess a corrupted Christian religion, for 
which they endure persecution and exile with great 
firmness. Their ancient tongue is a dead language, 
and differs so much from both the Iranic and Indie 
that some writers have considered it as distinct. It, 
however, is so closely allied to the Persian that Me- 
dian words preserved by Herodotus can be explained 
by means of the Armenian. 

The Armenians are a handsome, well-formed, sober, 
frugal, hospitable, and honest people. 

THE OSSETES 

Occupy the country north of Tiflis, and the valley 
of the Tiflis. They were, according to Georgian tra- 
dition, much more widely dispersed. Their customs 
and practices are strikingly like those of the German 
peasantry, so much so that they have been considered 
a fragment thrown off by the Teutonic wave as it 
passed the Caucasus. Their language inclines more 
to the Persian than the Teutonic. Klaproth considers 
them as descendants of the ancient Alani. According 
to Reineggs they are the Assaei of Pliny, who were 
ruled by women, and were celebrated for the manu- 
facture of iron arms. 



222 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

Our ideas of the true Persian must be drawn from 
the Parsees, who are the most direct descendants of 
the Fire-worshippers. When driven into exile, "they 
carried with them into India the rehgion, the hardy 
habits, and athletic forms of the north of Persia ; and 
their posterity may still be recognized, with th^r 
mental and bodily powers unimpaired, after the resi- 
dence of a thousand years in a burning climate." 
They are a brave and handsome people. 

The Guebres are also descendants from the old Per- 
sian ; but they have acquired, from their mixture with 
Mongolian or Chinese, an ugliness foreign to the old 
Persian type, as delineated in their sculptures, which 
present perfect European features. Their color va- 
ries with locality. The women of Persia and Afgha- 
nistan are, when not exposed, as white as Europeans; 
but the men are dark. It is stated that in the north 
provinces of Persia a slender form and blue eyes are 
characteristic of the females. In the south, especially 
on the low lands, a dark, almost black complexion 
prevails. 

The northern branch of the Aryan family possesses 
more historic interest than all other races combined. 
To it belong the history, poetry, literature, arts, in- 
ventions, and the grandest civilizations of the ancient 
and modern world; the Greek, the Eoman, and the 
various European empires. 

The Pelasgi, almost a mythic people, appear to have 
belonged to the earliest Aryan waves, which, flowing 
south of the Black Sea, reached Italy and Greece. 
The accounts of Greek historians of this people are 



THE ARYAN RACES. 223 

conflicting and inconsistent ; even then they had sunk 
into the mists of time. 

They were a peaceful race, and had the inherent 
love of architectural forms of beauty so conspicuous 
in the Greek. To them are referred the cyclopean 
structures, scattered over parts of Asia and Eu- 
rope, massive but rude attempts to express ideas in 
stone. The most plausible theory of this race is that 
they were the first waves of Greek and Italian 
peoples, and were constantly succeeded by other 
emigrations of the same stock, pressed towards 
Europe, across the Hellespont and Bosphorus, by 
the Lydians and Phrygians; they entered Italy in 
two streams, one from Greece and the other over the 
Plains of the Po. 

All these emigrations appear to have been of one 
stock, and the memory of the earlier have been lost 
in traditions so completely that they were considered 
by the Greeks to be the very children of the " black 
earth." In such a state of things, the historian and 
the student of races must needs yield to the confu- 
sion. 

Pritchard has shown that the entire ancient popu- 
lation of Greece were Pelasgi, and that they spoke 
the ^olic dialect, which may be considered as the 
common original from which the other dialects were 
derived. It was a long time before the Greeks in- 
vented a name by which to distinguish their kindred 
tribes, to the exclusion of foreigners. When the term 
Hellenic was applied, it strictly designated tribes of 
unmixed blood ; but the Romans used the name Grgeci 
for all those who spoke dialects of that language. 



224 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

After the Peloponnesus had adopted this name, the 
lonians still retained that of Pelasgi. 

Prom these united emigrations sprung the Hellenic 
and Roman civilizations. 

THE THRACIANS 

Appear, by the intricate manner in which they blend 
with the Pelasgi, to have been of the same stock. 
The Greek and Latin languages indicate the relations 
of their respective races to the Iranic and Indie 
branches. The Sanskrit is a sister language from a 
common parentage. Before the separation occurred, 
or previous to the emigration of. the Pelasgi, the 
connection of words teach what advancement had 
been made. They hold the name of a boat in 
common: but they had not invented sails, nor had 
they seen the sea; and they were more nomadic 
than agricultural. 

Thinly spread over a large area of Europe and 
Asia, and the islands of the Mediterranean, they 
remained barbarous; concentrated in Greece and 
Italy, they began a splendid civilization. The Latin 
partakes deeply of an older stock than the Greek; 
but both run almost parallel courses with the San- 
skrit. As races they avoid the mental stagnation 
of the Hindoos, and eagerly rush onward in quest 
of novelties, yielding poetry in its noblest form, and 
art in unrivalled beauty. The Lydians, Carians, and 
Thracians, by the manner in which they are all lost 
in the Pelasgi, appear to have been derived from a 
common parentage. 



THE ARYAN RACES. 225 



THE KELT. 



A contempory wave of the great European irami- 
gration was- that of the Kelts. Their language is 
considered to be, by many scholars, of an earlier date 
than Sanskrit, belonging directly to the ancient 
tongue from which Sanskrit also was derived. The 
hypothesis of Meyer, although entirely hypothetical, 
accounts for the facts connected with the migration 
of this people in a very clear and satisfactory 
manner. He supposes that they entered Europe in 
two streams : one passing through Syria, Egypt, and 
along the northern coast of the Mediterranean, enter- 
ing Europe at the Straits of Gibraltar; the other 
passing on the north of Europe. Authentic history 
finds the Kelt from the northern regions of Scotland 
to the extreme south of Italy. In the third century, 
they capture Rome and enter Greece, Macedonia, 
and Thessaly, ravage Asia-Minor, and attack the 
Scythians. 

The Kelts were a noisy and warring people, elastic 
but unenduring, with the restless folly of childhopd, 
with vast hopes and fierce joys. With swift feet 
they overran Europe, and subjugated or destroyed 
the Turanian tribes which preoccupied that country. 

They met the ocean, when it invaded them, with 
arms, and shot arrows at the lightning. Never to 
flee was a point of honor ; and often they would not 
leave a house on fire, but perished in the flames. 
Of enormous appetites, their feasts rarely ended 
without a quarrel; for the thigh belonged to the 
bravest at the board, and to determine who was the 

15 



226 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

bravest was the source of constant dispute. No 
people held life cheaper. They would, for a piece 
of money or a little wine, sell their lives. Next to 
fighting and feasting they loved tales of other lands, 
and would compel strangers to entertain them. 
They were great talkers themselves ; and, in public 
assemblies, drawn swords only could secure the 
speaker a hearing. They were abandoned through 
levity, and at random ran blindly into the most 
licentious pleasures. They broke faith with a jest ; 
had no idea of the obligations of a promise ; and, until 
other blood was infused into their veins, so impa- 
tient of control and fickle were they, that they were 
incapable of founding permanent states. 

The Kelts inhabited Europe from the earliest 
period spoken of in ancient history. Their mythol- 
ogy indicates their Eastern origin more unequivo- 
cally than their language. From Ceesar we learn 
that they were divided into, three castes, corre- 
sponding to the priest, the warrior, and laborer 
among the Hindoos. The Brahmins of India are 
the exact counterpart of the Druids. Those wild 
priests of a wilder people are clothed with an im- 
penetrable myth. They possessed the strongest hold 
on the imaginations of the people. They had no 
concern in warfare, nor were they subject, together 
with the rest of the people, to pay taxes. They 
enjoyed immunity from military and all other bur- 
dens. "By means of augury and the inspection of 
sacrifices, they foretell future events, and keep the 
multitude in awe.'' They .were abettors in battle, 
the teachers of youth, and decided all legal questions 



THE ARYAN RACES. 227 

which arose among a rude people. All knowledge 
flowed from them. They had sacred animals, and 
sometimes on their rude altars offered human sacri- 
fices. Like the Hindoos, they .burned^ their dead on 
funeral piles; and favorite animals, slaves, or relatives 
were consumed with the dead. From the earliest 
periods, they excelled in valor, and were eagerly 
engaged as mercenaries by the rulers of ancient 
times. They were extremely credulous, and thus 
the Druids fastened on them a terrible system of 
superstition. By the steady valor of the Romans 
and Teutons, they were subdued and absorbed. 
Their moral and intellectual traits have remained 
almost without change to the present; but nowhere, 
except in the Highlands of Scotland, is' the Kelt 
described by Cassar to be found. There they still 
have a ruddy complexion, light hair, and blue eyes, 
and are remarkably tall and athletic. There, too, 
they still wear the tartan garment. From their remains, 
it has been learned that they understood working in 
iron, gold, copper, bronze, ivory, and glass : that 
they used coins, constructed ships and houses and 
roads. They possessed an alphabet allied to the 
Greek ; but none of their literature, if they ever had 
any, has been preserved. Philologists divide the 
Keltic tongues into Kymric, embracing the Welsh 
and Bas-Breton, and the Gaelic, embracing the Irish, 
the Gaelic of the Scotch-Highlander, and dialect of 
the Isle of Man. 

THE SCLAVONIANS. 

Over the vast country known to the Romans as 
Sarmatia, dwelt a people who have, in very recent 



\ 



228 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

times, excited the interest of the world by their rapid 
strides to civilization and power. These are the 
Sclavonians. They are divided into the' Antes, 
comprising the Russians, and Sclavonian nations of 
Illyrium, and the Sclavi, comprising the Poles, Bohe- 
mians, Serbes, and Wends. The Sclavic languages 
show the structure of the Sanskrit, and are allied to 
the Latin and Greek. By this alliance, their origin 
is determined. In what degree they partook of the 
character of the old Sarmatian tribes cannot be 
determined, but it is probable that they aggregated 
out of them. They were unfortunately settled on the 
boundaries of Roman civilization, and their territo- 
ries became the battle-ground between Rome and 
the barbafians. They were not warlike, but tillers 
of the soil ; but on them fell the attacks of the hordes 
of Asia, on the east, and on the west, towards which 
they were crowded by the Huns, Turks, and Avars, 
they met the unflinching Teuton. But with a tenac- 
ity unparalleled, they have withstood all these inva- 
sions, and absorbed each wave of conquest, without 
being changed themselves. From 400, B. C, to 200, 
A. D., they slowly moved north and east, occupying 
the vast plains of Eastern Europe. 

It is not until the sixth century we meet with the 
Sclaves in history. When the Longobards abandoned 
Hungary, the Avars took possession of that country, 
and assigned lands to their Sclavonic allies. The 
Sclaves in 552 occupied the country beyond the 
Danube, and their expeditions extend over Dalmatia, 
Illyria, Thrace, even to Constantinople. They par- 
took of the immense movements of the Teutonic 



THE ARYAN RACES. 229 

tribes ; and, in the sixth and seventh centuries, they 
spread from the Danube to the German Ocean, occu- 
pying territories left by Teutonic tribes in their 
emigrations towards the west. 

In the seventh century, the eastern Sclaves became 
attached to the south-eastern decHvity of the Alps. 
The Russians belong to the eastern branch, and 
receive their name from a Scandinavian tribe who 
governed them for some centuries. From 582 to 
the eighth century, the western Sclaves overran 
Greece and contiguous states. In 623, they ap- 
peared on the Elbe. They settled Moravia, furnished 
the ancestors of the present Bohemians, founded 
cities and colonies on the North Sea, and from them 
sprang the Dalmatians, the Frankish Sclaves, the 
Saxon Sclaves, the Poles, the Slovaks, and Pomera- 
nians. 

Less bold and ^adventurous, and less moral than 
the Teutons, they evince, however, a tenacity of 
character which preserves, after all the conquests to 
which they have been subjected, and the mingling of 
nationalities, their peculiar type in its original purity. 
They have always fought well when forced to do 
so, but their inclinations have ever been towards 
peace. They were at first in advance of the Teu- 
tons in peaceful arts ; and it is thought the word 
expressive of plough, as well as the use of that impor- 
tant instrument, was derived by the latter from their 
Sclavic neighbors. From the fifth to the ninth cen- 
tury, the Teutons held Western Germany, and the 
Sclaves eastern ; and it was observed that the latter 
country was more powerful, and in every way more 



230 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

• 

prosperous. They are remarkable for never having 
had great chieftains and leaders. There seemed 
more equality among the individuals than in any 
other race. Their progress was always slow, and 
now they appear to have only just entered on their 
career of civihzation. The Russian Autocracy, hav- 
ing grasped the destinies of the Sclavic race, and, with 
the highest order of justice, removed the impediments 
of serfdom which has so long forbidden progress, 
will swiftly arise to its true place as one of the most 
powerful, enlightened, and commanding governments 
on the earth. 

THE LITHURANIANS 

Inhabit the eastern coast of the Baltic, from the 
Vistula to the Memel. They are a very early branch 
of the Sclavonic Family, and their language has not 
suffered so much change as other branches ; so that 
it approaches the original Sanskrit in a wonderful 
degree. Early in the fourth century, they were 
brought to notice by their traffic in amber, and were 
recognized as distinct from the adjoining Sarmatians. 
They are divided into three branches : the Ancient 
Prussians, the Lithuranians, and the people of Kur- 
land and Livonia. Of all the pagan nations, none 
resisted Christianity with so great pertiifticity ; and 
not until the thirteenth century were they subdued 
by the Teutonic Knights. They have been called 
the Windic family by Miiller, and considered as a 
sister family of the Sclavonic. Very little of their 
literature has been transmitted, but their dialects are 
of great interest as presqjiting the earliest forms of 
Aryan speech. 



THE ABYAN RACES. 231 

THE TEUTONIC RACE. 

We have come to the consideration of this last 
great family of mankind. We have left it until the 
last, because it is the great historic race of the 
present, and around it gather the ruling national- 
ities of the world. The history of this noble race 
begins, like that of all others, by the description of 
savage hordes scattered through the wilderness of 
Northern Europe. Germany as known to the Romans 
embraced the vast area comprised between the Rhine 
and Danube on the south, the ocean on the west, 
the Vistula on the east, and extended north indefi- 
nitely. The tribes scattered over this territory were 
divided by their dialects into three branches: the Low- 
er and the Upper German, and Scandinavian. This 
division, so pertinent at present, was equally good 
two thousand years ago ; and, so radical is the difier- 
ence between these dialects, that the separation must 
have occurred before their departure from their origi- 
nal seat. The Upper, or classical German, is "harsh 
and deeply-toned, abounding in gutturals and imper- 
fectly articulated consonants, and in deep diphthongal 
sounds, which stand in place of the softer dentals and 
palatines, and of the open vowels of the Lower Ger- 
man languages." Notwithstanding the softness of 
the Upper German in the classical speech, it remains 
the harshest dialect of Europe. This branch has 
been always distinguished by the name of Teutsch, 
or Deutsch, from whence is derived Teutonic. Long 
before the Christian era, the Teutons and Cimbri 
moved towards Gaul and Italy. In the second cen- 



232 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

tury, an indescribable confusion prevailed among the 
hordes of the Germanic forests. Constantly, fresh 
tribes were arriving froin the East, pushed forward 
by an irresistible impulse on the boundaries of the 
Roman empire/ Nations of warriors- making inroads 
for the purpose of plunder; others advancing with 
their women, children, and herds ; others transplanted 
by the Roman magistrates, as the safest and easiest 
method of their disposition. Tor seven centuries, 
commencing at least two hundred years before 
Christ, this immense flux and reflux of nationahties 
went on, producing the greatest mingling of races; 
and, beneath their irresistible human waves, the 
colossal Roman empire went down, and was trampled 
in the dust. It was not lost, however. The vigor of 
savage Teutonic blood, directed by Roman know^l- 
edge, exerts its strength in the civilization of the 
present. 

Whence came these terrible surges of peoples? 
From the East. "We may suppose as probable .that 
about 1200, B. C, some great internal popular move- 
ment, or some change in the physical conditions in 
Asia pressed the neighboring tribes upon the Teu- 
tonic races, and drove them to the country on the 
north of the Black Sea. From these provinces three 
great currents are believed to have flowed, in the 
fourth century, B. C, into Europe : one up the 
Dnieper to the countries on the Baltic, and still 
another up the Danube to the valley of the Rhine. 
From Scandinavia it is believed by some, that, in the 
third century, B. C, two streams flow^ed towards the 
south, one of which mingling with the Kelts, formed 



THE ARYAN RACES. 233 

the nation of the Belgae, and the other forced out 
the whole nation of the Cimbri from Northern Europe 
upon the Roman empire.'' 

There were four leading nationalities in ancient 
times : ^he Goths, Franks, Saxons, and Alemanns, 
besides the Vandals, Burgundians, Longobards, and 
innumerable other tribes. Of these the Goths were 
the first ; but, weakened by the attacks of the Huns, 
and exposed to the enervation of Latin influence, 
they totally disappeared as a nation. The Vandals 
had a large infusion of Sclavonic blood ; and, accept- 
ing the Semitic civilization of Africa, they perished 
under its influence. The Longobards preserved their 
purity for a much longer time, but mingled with the 
Kelts. The Burgundians, although remaining in 
purity still longer, mingled at length with K^lt and 
Sclave. The Franks preserved their purity still 
longer, and escaped the corruption of Rome. Of 
all these tribes, the Saxon, in his remote home in 
the north-west of Europe, was least contaminated 
with Latin corruption, and hence preserved the 
Teutonic blood in its greatest purity. In the eighth 
century, a great Teutonic empire under Charlemagne 
was founded. The ethnic condition of Europe at that 
time is most perplexing. Semitic, Teutonic, Sclavic, 
and Keltic tribes were scattered in wildest confusion, 
just as they were cast by the countless surges of 
peoples. From these have grown the present nation- 
alities of Europe. But their evolution more properly 
belongs to the province of history. 

The classical historians have left us fine descrip- 
tions of the Teutonic race. They were tall, powerful, 



234 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 

with blonde complexions, light hair, and blue eyes. 
They were noted for personal dignity and boundless 
spirit of enterprise. They were trustful and confid- 
ing; reckless of their own lives, and cruel, to their 
foes, with a burning desire for adventure, especially 
on the sea ; greedy of booty, the table, and gaming. 
Of all the nations of antiquity, savage or civilized, 
they paid the most attention to women ; and by them 
the spirit of mediaeval chivalry was awakened, and 
the high position held at present by women acknowl- 
edged. To their love of the country, and detestation 
of the city, are referable the feudal castles where the 
lord held his court alone ; for the Teuton was always 
arbitrary, and cherished slavery and diflFerence of 
classes, but supported self government in the ruling 
order.^ The ancient Teuton was moral, but not relig- 
ious. His religion was a scientific mythology, and he 
spent his ardor in the subtleties of law and govern- 
ment. But they were ready recipients of Christi- 
anity, and became a great power in its extension. 

The German languages are intimately related to 
the Sanskrit; so much so that the attention of schol- 
ars was deeply awakened by the remarkable coinci- 
dences it presented, when attention was first directed 
to the subject. It is a sister, younger than the Kelt, 
of the Sanskrit and Prakit tongues. 



CHAPTER XL 

NATURAL SELECTION IN THE ANIMAL WORLD. 

The Exalted Position of Man. — The Arguments for the Origin of Species 
of Animals, by Natural Causes, apply to the Origin of Races of Men. — 
Consequences of the Introduction of one Being, and its Increase. — The 
Antagonist of Multiplicatidh. — The Struggle for Life. — No Catastrophe, 
but Certain and Perpetual Change. — Illustrations. — The same Laws ap- 
plicable to Past as to Present Beings. — The two Antagonistic Forces. — 
Selection by Man. — Wherein different from that of Nature. — Selection 
by Nature. — Application to Man. 

Man is the most highly developed being of the ani- 
mal world. In preceding pages it has been shown 
that there is no difference in his organic structure or 
physical character from animals, and that even his 
mental endowments do not sever him from their 
realm. As a necessary deduction from these prem- 
ises, any laws of development applicable to them 
must in like manner be applicable to him. As their 
laws of embryonic growth are his; as the organic 
changes in their systems are like those in his system, 
those of origin or derivation must be his : for the 
entire organic world is bound together into an indis- 
soluble unity, which can only be explained by unity 
of descent. 

I shall first introduce the facts connected with the 
origin of species of animals, and, from the principles 
they evolve, arise to the consideration of the origin 



236 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 

of tlie races of men. It is presumable that life first 
appeared in a simple cell, or cellular mass, the lowest 
form of animal or vegetable life. Let us trace out 
i\\Q probctble results which would inevitably flow from 
the introduction of such a cell-life on the globe, 
which at that time was, from internal heat, of a warm 
and equable climate from equator to the poles. 

Let us suppose that this cell has the power of 
multiplication. It is well known that this takes place 
in the lower forms of life with far greater rapidity 
than among the higher. Ehrenberg estimates that a 
single individual of Hydatina^ or Rotifer, or animal- 
cule, is capable of multiplying to seventeen millions 
in twenty-four days. If we state the increase 
at only a hundred in a year, — allowing the earth to 
be 8,000 miles in diameter, its surface would contain 
5,577,680,000,000,000 squar.e feet, — at the end of the 
tenth year there would be 17,935 animals to every 
square foot of surface. If these multiplied a hundred- 
fold the eleventh year, each square foot would contain 
1,793,500, or nearly two millions of beings, and, the 
twentieth year, 1,793,500,000,000,000,000,000,000, or 
nearly two septillions. 

Many fishes eject a million spawn in a'^single year. 
If all these were to mature, as they might under fa- 
vorable circumstances, and in the absence of enemies, 
the second year they would number one million mill- 
ions ; the third year a million billions ; the fourth year 
they would fill the ocean, and the vast majority of all 
ofi'spring would inevitably perish in the fierce strug- 
gle for existence which would ensue. This immense 
reproductive power is held in common by the lower 



NATURAL SELECTION IN THE ANIMAL WORLD. 237 

forms of living beings. Before other functions be- 
come differentiated, that of propagation seems to be 
the end of the being's existence. 

The view of these appalling and incomprehensible 
numbers shows us at once that some antagonistic 
force, or forces, must be brought to bear against this 
increase of living forms. There are two powers at 
work : one creating, the other destroying. 

We commence with a warm and equable climate, 
and a cellular being neither plant nor animal, a 
being like the Protopliyte, or Protozoa. We have 
supposed it capable of multiplying a hundred-fold 
in a year ; at the end of a score of years the earth 
becomes dense]^ stocked. The almost universal sea 
is filled with this being. It teems at the equator 
and at the poles. What next occurs? 

Mai thus promulgated the doctrine that the in- 
crease of the human family was at a greater ratio 
than the production of food. Hence the supply of 
food set an impassable limit to the increase of man. 
I'his law applies with terrible force to the animal 
realm, which, having no foresight, are compelled to 
accept conditions as presented. Hence arises what 
Darwin so aptly terms the struggle for existence. 
This means, not a battle, but the silent combat be- 
tween the weaker and the stronger, in which the 
weaker eventually perish. 

The waters of the sea could not support all the 
beings which so rapidly sprang into life. The limit of 
its supporting power would be reached long ere the 
twentieth year of multiplication had been attained. 
Then the competition between the stronger and the 



238 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

weaker would commence. Although produced under 
similar circumstances, there would be a diversity 
among the intlividuals ; and, when the vigorous had 
obtained their supply of food, there would be little or 
none left for the feeble. They would leave few or no 
offspring, and eventually perish. Only the strong 
survive and propagate^ This statement appears very 
plain, and perfectly self evident ; but its adoption 
leads to what may be considered appalling results: 
for between this lowest form of life, and man, there is 
no. break in the chain of beings. When we speak of 
transitions from one geological age to another as 
abrupt, or accompanied by great changes, it must 
not be supposed that these change* were violent 
or sudden. The sudden changes observed are the 
iresult of the imperfection of our knowledge of the 
geological record, not to the real rapidity of change. 
Lyell nobly proves that the laws of change in the 
inorganic world fully accounted for the changes 
revealed by geology, thus setting aside the wild 
theories of convulsion, of fiery and aqueous deluges, 
which filled the minds of men previous to his time. 
A similar work is required to destroy the notions of 
revolution and catastrophe in the realm of living 
beings, which, like a nightmare, broods over the 
minds of most scientists. There has been one Plan, 
one code of action, pursued ^nth unerring cer- 
tainty ; and the much-spoken-of catastrophes have 
had no more effect on the general tide of life, than 
the eruption of ^tna has on the civilization of the 
world. The terrific mountain piles, broken and dis- 
torted ; the flexions and upheavings of the earth's 



NATURAL SELECTION IN THE ANIMAL WORLD. 239 

crust; the upthrows and downthrows of faults, — at 
first suggest terrible and violent forces, acting at 
once and gigantically; but we learn that these are 
silent and inconceivably slow effects. The upheaving 
of a mountain may, be the result of a hundred million 
j^ears, and the .'bondings in the earth's crust may have 
begun myriads of ages ago, and, for aught we know, 
the mountains at this moment be rising, and the crust 
bending with as great rapidity as at any time in the 
past. Looking over the globe, we know that w^e see 
the entire catalogue of forces which have exerted 
themselves to change the crust of the earth actively 
at work, and performing exactly what we see per- 
formed in the past. Every day we have witnessed a 
day of catastrophe. Every day is a day of violent 
change. 

If a mountain should rise one foot in a thousand 
years, it could not be detected, as our determination 
of the heights of mountains is too rough to appreci- 
ate so slight a change. But this rate would, geologi- 
cally speaking, soon elevate the loftiest mountain 
range. 

Equally is it true, that we see, every day, working 
after their own manner, the forces which produce 
change in the species of organic beings. Geologists 
talk of the gigantic coal flora springing into exist- 
ence, as though before the coal there had been no 
plants ; of the Saurian age, as though before there 
had been no Saurians, and that they died out entirely 
at the close of that period, and, in a similar manner, 
of all the periods they have seen fit to create. The 
truth is, that their ideal Saurian age, or age of gigan- 



240 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

tic mammals, completely run into each other, and are 
only broken because they can see but a fragment of 
each. The best idea entertained of the geological 
record is like that which would be obtained of numer- 
ation by an ignorant person, by writing the figures 

thus: 3,4, ,9, ■ 20-21-22, 

65. What would that person know of numbers, and how 
vain would it be for him to theorize on catastrophes 
which had erased the intermediate numbers, or vio- 
lently leaped the intervals by miracle or the action 
of unknown forces ? A very little learning will make 
the subject plain, and show him that the breaks are 
not of nature, but of ignorance; that those numbers 
begin with one, and ascend by an inevitable law to 
the last figure. 

If a savage should for the first time see the dial of 
a clock with the hands pointing to six, and, going 
away, return to find them pointing to twelve, as they 
apparently stood at rest when he left, and are at rest 
when he returns, he would at once refer their move- 
ment during his absence to a sudden and violent 
cause; whereas they were moving constantly with 
the same unerring and perpetual motion. 

The laws which create and govern living beings 
are as immutable and eternal as those which govern 
inorganic matter; hence must have been the same a 
thousand million years ago as at present. These 
forces act in completeness around us, and their study 
reveals the method of specific va 'iation in past forms. 

Having thus shown that the b^.ing we have intro- 
duced on the globe stands at the foot of a graduat- 
ing series of which man is at the head; that that 



NATURAL SELECTION IN THE ANIMAL WORLD. 241 

series is without break ; that violent and sudden 
change exists only in the mind ; that the same laws 
hold to past as present forms, — we ask, Why is the 
admission that there is a struggle for existence fraught 
with so important consequences?* Because by it or- 
ganic changes can be accounted for. 

The being which we supposed inhabiting the 
earth finds that the ocean cannot afford it sustenance. 
An unfavorable condition is introduced, — want of 
food. Will this destroy all, or only a part ? It will 
destroy a part, and those the weaker. We never 
see two animals or plants alike ; there is always diver- 
sity. But any change unfavorable to the being, when 
there is great competition, is fatal. On the other hand, 
any diversity favorable to the being confers the power 
to compete successfully. Hence all individuals gain- 
ing any thing are preserved, while those that lose are 
destroyed. If hereditary descent were impossible, the 
race of beings would gain nothing; for at death the 
acquisition would be lost, to be again acquired and lost 
by succeeding beings. But hereditary descent is pos- 
sible. It is a potent force in fashioning organic forms. 

There are two forces operating on every organism : 
, 1. The conservative power of hereditary influ- 
ences. 

2. The force of surrounding conditions. 

An organic being, as it stands animated with life, 
is the result of all the conditions'and" forces which 
have operated on all'its ancestors. It is the concre- 
tion of these which it inherits and transmits to its 
offspring. So unerringly is this performed that it is 

16 



242 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

proverbial ; and we expect the offspring to be like 
the parent. 

That the oflFspring varies within narrow limits, no 
one will dispute. The cause of such variations is not 
referable to chance ; for, when every thing pursues 
the course prescribed by law, there can be no chance 
or accident. It is probable that these variations are 
results of the operation of conditions of life on the 
parent ; in fact, they can be accounted for in no other 
manner. 

Hereditary descent strives constantly to preserve 
the breed true to ancestral forms, while the conditions 
of life seek to modify and mould to new patterns. If 
the conditions of life were ever the same, then both 
the forces of descent and conditions would act har- 
moniously, and there would be no change ; for 
hereditary descent is that which seeks to perpetuate 
the result of certain conditions, regardless of all oth- 
ers ; and, were it not influenced in the embryo, cir- 
cumstances might blot out, but they could not change 
specific forms. The embryonic being is influenced: 
if sufEciently to mature in harmony with the modify- 
ing influences, it is preserved ; if not, it is remorse- 
lessly destroyed. 

This method of destruction and preservation, turning 
on the slightest adaptations, is really the same as that 
pursued by man in his cultivation of the various 
varieties of plants and animals. In order to under- 
stand natural selection, we shall first study the method 
of man. Between it and that of Nature there are cer- 
tain difi*erences ; but the principles involved are the 
same. The animals and plants called "domestic,'' are 



NATURAL SELECTION IN THE ANIMAL WORLD. 243 

not found in nature, but are creations of man. They 
have been slowly evolved by the conditions imposed 
by man acting on their embryo to induce alterations, 
and then seizing on those changes which best suited 
his demands. When these domesticated animals or 
plants escape from cultivation, they rapidly degener- 
ate, and often are unable to support themselves at 
all. Our horses, sheep and cattle do very well under 
the care of man in the latitude of the Great Lakes ; 
but if by any accident man should be swept off, they 
would inevitably perish. They could not endure the 
first winter. So with our cultivated grains : they 
cannot hold their own against the weeds and grasses, 
except by the vigilance of man. It is for this reason 
that so soon as they escape to the feral state they lose 
the conditions by which man surrounds them, and by 
which they were formed; that they degenerate, or are 
destroyed. 

It has been erroneously stated that when domestic 
breeds become feral, they revert to the original wild 
stock. Who can say what the wild stocks were? 
Have the horse and ox of South America reverted? 
Assuredly not to the quagga or aurock ! 

Perhaps no plant shows the effect of cultivation in 
inducing diversity more than the common cabbage. 
It was originally a rough-leaved plant, growing by the 
seaside ; and still shows its original habits by the ma- 
nurial effect of salt on its perfect maturing. Com- 
monly, its leaves are compressed into an enormous 
solid head, which to the plant is of no benefit ; and 
only through the care of the gardener in sheltering and 
transplanting the stump in the spring, are the seeds 



244 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

obtained. One variety, kale, does not form a head ; but 
its large leaves grow vigorously apart. In another, 
brussels sprouts, the buds at the axis of the leaves , 
are enlarged ; from this last the transition is easy to 
cauliflower, which forms a head entirely of a consoli- 
dated and abortive mass of flower-buds. The Kohl- 
robi, at first sight, appears to be a consolidated head, 
but really is an enormously enlarged stem, at the ex- 
pense of the leaves. 

The turnip, if not a remote descendant of the cab- 
bage, at least sports in numerous varieties. 

The parsnip is derived from a wild and poisonous 
root. 

All our fruits are derived from unpalatable wild 
stocks: the apple from the crab, the pear from the 
choky crab-pear, the cherry from the sloe, the peach 
from a poisonous shrub of Persia. Such have been the 
effects of cultivation; remove it, and the effects vanish, 
and only the original productions of Nature remain. 
She cannot furnish sustenance for these children of 
man. 

Of our domestic animals much has been written, 
and their origin is one of the most unsettled problems 
of natural history. The sheep, dog, horse, ox, have 
been supposed by some authors to descend each from 
one original parent ; while others suppose that each 
had many stocks : as instance one writer who thinks 
the sheep of England descended from at least nine 
original wild breeds or species. 

There can be no doubt that the dog belongs to sev- 
eral species ; but what great variations it has under- 
gone ! The bloodhound, bulldog, lapdog, greyhound, 



NATURAL SELECTION IN THE ANIMAL WORLD. 245 

etc., do not exist in nature, but are strictly creations 
of man. 

It is a received opinion that all the numerous vari- 
eties of pigeon are derived from the wild rock-pigeon; 
yet how great is the diflFerence between a tumbler and 
pouter, a fan-tail and carrier ! 

No intelligent breeder will dispute the possibility 
of effecting great changes in animals. The shepherd, 
by selection, produces such a character as he desires, 
be it fine, coarse, long or short fleece, or proportion 
and weight of body. It is known that by skilful 
selection the Merino and Leicestershire breeds of 
sheep were produced. In regard to the pigeon, Se- 
bright remarks that in three years he can produce 
a given feather ; and in six, a prescribed form of head 
and bill. 

The enormous prices paid for the prizes of Vermont 
flocks, and for those of celebrated foreign animals, 
prove how much proper selection has effected, gov- 
erned by accurate scientific knowledge. The same 
principle has been at work, unconsciously, since sav- 
age man domesticated the first animal. He ever kept 
those individuals which best fulfilled his desires, and 
destroyed those which did not. This process is con- 
tinued by the masses at present ; each strives to ob- 
tain a good breed, without any forethought or knowl- 
edge of the method pursued in producing the best. 
Here and there a Collins or a Bakewell arises, who 
bring acute observation to bear on the subject, and in 
their own lifetimes produce very great changes. 

The savage, allowing his animals to be at large in 
forest or plain, can exercise little influence in pairing. 



216 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

All that he can do is to destroy the poorest. Hence 
their domestic animals, having to conform to climate 
and supply of food just as do wild animals, par- 
take more of the character of species than those of 
civilized man. Change must go forward very slowly. 

There has been no sudden change, but each one 
who reared an animal, or sowed a seed, has sought the 
best, and reserved the best; and hereditary descent 
has preserved every slight change, and handed it 
down to the offspring. 

This selection differs from that of nature in being 
pursued directly and solely for the good of man, and 
having little or no relation to the welfare of the 
species on which it operated ; while the latter aims 
only at the good of the species undergoing change. 
Very often what man calls improvements would be 
decidedly unfavorable to the animal if thrown from 
under his care. The Durham could not remain true 
to breed if turned into .the wild ; nor could any of our 
thoroughbreds. These changes have not been ef- 
fected by the conditions of nature, and hence have no 
relations to the natural state of these animals. Man 
forestalls nature, and himself becomes the condition 
on which their existence depends. He selects from 
external indications, for he , cannot from internal; 
and hence it is that while domestic races differ so 
widely in external form their anatomy remains un- 
changed. When the farmer observed the first parent 
of the celebrated " otter " sheep, he thought its short 
legs desirable, as it prevented its leaping fences. So 
he, by selection, produced a breed having short legs 
and long bodies. Such a form might be very desira- 



NATURAL SELECTION IN THE ANIMAL WORLD. 247 

ble to tlie farmer, but to a flock of wild sheep it would 
in&ure destruction by wolves. Had such a lamb as 
the first of this breed been produced by a wild sheep, 
the first hungry fox or wolf would have killed it, and 
thus the breed have been at once destroyed. The farm- 
er shelters the lamb ; his pastures afford ready suste- 
nance, and the short legs are not serious impediments 
to a lamb thus situated ; but if wild, then, should it es- 
cape the fox and wolf, its short legs would seriously af- 
fect its scaling rocky heights and travelling over the 
scanty pastures, and, when brought in contact with 
longer legged rivals, would effectually insure its rapid 
extinction. 

When fine wool became more desirable than short 
legs, this breed was suffered to die out, and not one 
is left. The King Charles spaniel has greatly 
changed since the age of that monarch, and the set- 
ter is believed to be derived from it. The races of 
dogs are highly differentiated ancj abnormal. The 
thoroughbred setter, in the wild state, would have a 
poor chance of catching game by setting for it. That 
habit has direct relation to the hunter following him. 
The poodle would fare still worse, and would probably 
become extinct by the second generation. The hound 
might maintain himself if thrown into the wilds. 

If man, working for a short period, and, as it were, 
creating the necessary conditions, can effect so much ; 
if he can with his imperfect knowledge and super- 
ficiality of observation blot out the parent types of 
all his domestic animals by the magnitude of the 
changes he effects, assuredly Nature, in the greatness 
of her power, her keen insight, taking advantage of 



248 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

the structure of a single muscular fibre, an atom 
of bone, or the color of a hair, during the elapse of mil- 
lenniums of ages can compass changes incomparably- 
greater. From the earliest dawn of life to the present, 
the vigilant eye of Nature has watched incessantly for 
the slightest variations. Those which yielded good 
to the being, have been and are preserved ; and the 
new beings, thus having advantage over those which 
remain unchanged, supplant and extinguish them, to 
be in turn supplanted and extinguished. 

" Natural selection will modify the structure of the 
young in relation to the parent, and of the parent in 
relation to the young. In social animals it will adapt 
the structure of each individual for the benefit of the 
community, if each in consequence profits by the 
selected change.'^ — Origin of the Species, 

To illustrate this process, suppose a family of wolves- 
introduced into a country abounding with deer or 
other fleet game : Lamark would 'say the wolves, by 
constant pursuit, would develop muscularity, and thus 
become easily enabled to catch the game. This, in a 
measure, may be true ; but the impress on their off- 
spring by this constant chase would be incomparably 
greater. When there was scarcity, only the fleetest 
of these off'spring would be preserved, the others 
being remorselessly cut off by hunger. Those who 
endured privation best, who were strongest and 
swiftest, would transmit those traits to their offspring. 

We see this law of descent affecting remotest pro- 
geny ; and great allowance must be made for its iron 
conservatism. It stores up every gain, and never 
loses an old form until a better is supplied. 



NATURAL SELECTION IN THE ANIMAL WORLD. 249 

I think the subjecrt of natural selection will be 
understood, and its immense influence recognized, by 
this rude sketch. Darwin has developed the matter 
in an incomparable manner, and stands before the 
world as the Newton of Natural History. Here I can 
only sketch a few of his principles, which I desire to 
apply to man. 



CHAPTER XII. 
CONCLUSION. 

The Geographical Seat of Man's Origin. — Natural Selection applied to Man, 

The original seat of man's origin " has been a 
vexed question/' and as it has usually been discussed 
theologically, and not scientifically, little knowledge 
has been derived. Mankind, when first they became 
historically known, were distributed over the greater 
part of the Eastern hemisphere ; yet they appear to 
have originated in a common centre, and traditions of 
difierent nations indicate that that centre of disper. 
sion was located on the high central regions of Asia. 
From this area, all man's dogmatical knowledge, early 
inventions, and traditionary records emanate. Here 
the dog, the horse, ass, camel, ox, sheep, goat, cat, 
and gallinaceous fowls were fitst domesticated, and 
in and around it raany of them still exist in a wild 
state. Here must have been the seat of man's first 
development, or these tiigh lands must have afibrded 
protection to a portion of mankind when a more an- 
cient zoology was swept away by convulsions, of 
which mention is made by the traditions of all na- 
tions. The latter is probably the correct opinion; 
for we find this region skirted by lofty mountains, 
such as a people fleeing from destruction would natu- 

250 



CONCLUSION. 251 

rally seek, and these still bear the sacred names 
which a grateful people would bestow. To the south 
of these highlands, far into the Indian Ocean, every- 
where are written the records of the grandest and 
most prolonged convulsions, which probably gave rise 
to the myth of the Deluge. On the islands of the 
Indian Sea, which appear to be the crests of moun- 
tains rivalling Dhawalaghiri in height, and which 
may have escaped those convulsions which destroyed 
the then existing fauna, by depressing the land below 
the level of the sea, we find the Pithecus, or Orang- 
Outang, in stature as large as a man, and in strength 
equalling eight or more, which from its strong human 
resemblance has received the name of ^^ wild man of the 
wood,'^ and which, of all brute creation, approximates 
nearest to man. Still more remarkable, on the east- 
ern coast of this southern border, the transition from 
brute to man is made by degraded Papua tribes, can- 
nibals so low in the scale of humanity, that in them 
gleams not a ray of spirituality or morality. 

^[ Man probably originated near the Equator, where 
the climate was better adapted to his defenceless 
condition, and food abundant. If facts continue to 
support the present theory, that the Simiae — man- 
like apes — of the Oceanic islands are a remnant of 
an earlier zoology, the seat of man's original develop- 
ment should be placed on the submerged continent, 
the tops of whose mountains those islands represent. 

^^If we admit that man derived his origin from the 
animal world, then that region whose fauna ap- 
proaches nearest the human type should be the one 
to claim his birth. This fauna is the Asiatic, or 



252 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

Asiatico-Oceanican. Thus the inductions of science 
beautifully harmonize with the sacred traditions of 
mankind/^ # 

Applying the principles which govern the produc- 
tion of species of animals to savage man, to whom the 
names brute or man are alike applicable, we shall 
endeavor to show how from this savage sprang the 
various races into which mankind are divided. 

That any two savages should be born exactly 
alike, contradicts the experience of the present, no 
two individuals being precisely the same. Some of 
these individual characters will be preserved by off- 
spring ; others will perish with the individual. Which 
shall be preserved, which perish, is decided by the 
conditions which surround the individual. If he 
gain any thing by them over others who do not pos- 
sess them, they, by giving greater vigor, and by im- 
parting greater strength to his offspring, will be 
preserved ; but, if he gain nothing by them, or, as 
is often the case, they are injurious to him, then they 
perish. Applying this general statement, we can see 
how much a savage, in his strife with beasts and 
other savages, would gain by superior strength, by 
swiftness of foot, by keenness of sight, and immeas- 
urably more by predominant intellect. All these 
advantages would be constantly felt, but at some 
periods much more than others. When tiiere is 
scarcity of game, the most wily hunter, he who has 
keenest sight, who is swiftest or strongest, secures 
and safely holds a supply of game, while less favored 
individuals perish. In these endowments we see an 
approach to animals, but in no case as great swiftness, 



CONCLUSION. 263 

as keen sight, or equal strength. This is because the 
pre-eminence of even savage man is based on mental 
and not physical superiority; and, according to the 
laws of correlation of mental and physical powers, as 
much as one gains the other must lose. All gain in 
intellect is so much loss to the body. From his type 
of organization, more especially his upright posture, 
strength sufficient to grapple with the denizens 
of the forest cannot be attained; and, from the 
same cause, equal swiftness is denied him. If, in 
the struggle for life, the existence of the savage 
wholly depended on these, the savage would cer- 
tainly perish. He cannot equal, much less exceed 
them. But there are points in which he can equal 
them. In quickness of the senses, in endurance of 
vicissitudes of climate, of extremes of temperature, 
and the pangs of hunger, he is their equal. Savages 
are proverbial for quickness of sight and hearing ; and, 
so acute is their sense of smell, that they are enabled 
to track animals by it with the certainty of the hound. 
The Esquimaux can withstand the temperature of 
freezing mercury. He can endure weeks of starvation, 
or gorge on a dozen pounds of blubber, washed down 
with a gallon of train oil. From the precarious means 
of subsistence afforded by hunting, the capabilities of 
enduring hunger is of material benefit. It is equally 
so to all carnivorous animals, and in all we find that 
the same endurance has been attained. 

The acuteness of sense is connected with superior 
mentality, and points to greater dependence on men- 
tal acumen than physicd powers. The savage can- 
not overtake his game by running, nor grapple with 



254 * THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

the less fleet, conquering by power of muscle; but he 
decoys them into pit-falls or ambuscades, and, by a 
mentality slightly surpassing them, he holds them all 
in his hand. The bent bow and reed arrow give 
him dominion. But of the vast duration necessary 
for him to acquire even these, I cannot speak. The 
club would be the first weapon for him to acquire, a 
weapon used by the man-like apes. Some chance 
may have discovered it; and we can readily compre- 
hend how rapidly those who did not or could not use 
it must disappear before its possessors. This skill 
of invention introduces a new element into the strug- 
gle for existence, which, although pursuing the- same 
course as that of Nature, in a measure sets it aside. 

As man penetrated the wild in every direction 
from his primeval seat, he met diverse conditions. 
As the migration was extremely slow, no abrupt 
changes would be wrought ; and the problem is more 
difficult to study than it would be were a tribe sud- 
denly broken off and set in an entirely new climate. 
To simplify, let us suppose a clan of savages thus 
placed in a new locality. The negro is now in 
perfect equilibrium with the climate of the tropics ; 
he has become so by insensible degrees. Let us sup- 
pose that previous to his acquirement of this adapta- 
tion, he is at once placed in torrid Africa, thus 
annulling the ages during which he has been acquir- 
ing his peculiarities. We will not consider him as a 
negro, but simply as a savage. The members of this 
clan are no more acclimated to the African climate 
than the European, but possess the hardy malleability 
of savages. When they are first introduced they 



CONCLUSION. 255 

are subject to fevers and other tropical diseases, of 
which many perish. The hardiest, or those fa- 
vored by some peculiarity of constitution, survive 
and propagate. Offspring born under direct influence 
of opposing conditions are necessarily impressed by 
them. Those who do not conform eventually perish, 
while every gain in conformity is avariciously hus- 
banded and multiplied in more vigorous offspring. 
The endurance of heat depends considerably on color ; 
hence, as a dark skin is best able to endure heat, 
every increment of color would be preserved. The 
latest psychological researches show that form of 
body and cast of features are correlated with devel- 
opment of mind. The woolly hair of the negro is 
probably related to the color of skin. In a clan thus 
situated, every gain made by an individual in adapta- 
tion is a means of preservation, and those who do 
not or cannot conform inevitably perish. 

The principle of ^^ Natural Selection '^ applied to man 
is precisely the same as that whereby the hardy consti- 
tution of the Spanish Merino is acquired. These have 
long journeys to make from pasture to pasture, over 
desert mountain tracts, in performing which the weak- 
est perish. Hence the strong are preserved ; and this 
cause operating* for ages has given this breed a sur- 
prising endurance. 

Here we must remark that any gain, to be pre- 
served, must confer a benefit, or he directly related 
to the wants of the individual. The albino peculiarity, 
which is of frequent occurrence among negroes, and 
all races, as well as animals, is seemingly the result 
of defective constitution, and, although said to have 



256 THE OEIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 

been in some cases hereditary, being detrimental to the 
well-being of the individual are never preserved. A 
school of naturalists seek to derive the white race from 
the black, through the albino, ignoring the defective 
constitution of the latter, whereby it rarely is capable 
of propagation. When exposed to the sun, the skin of 
the albino, born though he be under the tropics, blis- 
ters and cracks, instead of darkening, and his eyes 
cannot endure the light. A constitution worse 
adapted to his position cannot be imagined. Hence 
no albino race has ever been produced. 

The same remarks apply to ^^ porcupine men," and 
"six-fingered" individuals. These peculiarities are 
hereditarily transmitted for several generations, and 
might become permanent, no doubt, did the possession 
of a " porcupine skin," or of " six fingers," confer a 
vital superiority on their possessors. 

Here we notice the difference between selection by 
man, and selection by Nature. Man selects according 
to his pleasure, and supplies the conditions necessary 
for preservation. Nature selects by means of the con- 
ditions of preservation. Hence, as there is no yielding 
of the means, her mandate is rigidly enforced, and 
every being out of harmony is lopped off. 

This process of acclimation we can study in 
America. There was a frightful mortality with the first 
emigrants ; even now, from one-half to three-fourths 
of the infants die before reaching the age of four 
years. False customs may have something to do with 
this, but the great cause is climate. Already the 
American type is different from the European. The 
American is tall, spare, nervous, the opposite of his 



CONCLUSION. 257 

Anglo-Saxon* grandfather. Some high authorities, 
mistaking the operation of this principle, b)^ which 
weaker forms are destroyed, predict that only by the 
constant emigration from the Old World can the white 
population of this continent be sustained. 



Every gain in mentality, by conferring a greater 
superiority, would be preserved. The individuals 
who first united in tribes were greatly benefited 
thereby, and would supplant those who did not. So 
the acquisition of every new weapon, every new in- 
strument, or of the canoe, would place the possessors 
above those who did not employ them. Hence, they 
could occupy the best localities, and become, in a 
measure, independent of the vicissitudes of the time. 

It has been shown by history, founded on philologi- 
cal research, in previous pages, that the great races 
of mankind flowed out in broad streams from a com- 
mon source. Our field is narrowed to the considera- 
tion of his origin from the highest members of the 
animal world. We have seen how his progress flows 
from the inevitable " struggle for existence. '^ 

1. The same plan is found to pervade the entire 
realm of organized beings ; and man does not depart 
from the common type, but is its ideal attained. 

2. There is no more difference between the lowest 
man and highest Simias than between the highest and 
lowest Simiee, or between the lowest and highest man. 
There is a perfect gradation in bony structure and in 
brain. 

3. History unites mankind at a common source ; 

17 



258 THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 

locates their origin where the highest members of the 
animal kingdom, are found. 

4. " The struggle for existence ^' indicates the pro- 
cess by which the progress observed might have been 
evolved. 

This " struggle '' pervades all history ; in fact, is its 
key. A people isolated, like the Australians, between 
a desert and an ocean, without competitors, remain 
stagnant. When scattered through vast forests, as 
the American Indians, the effort required to secure a 
mere subsistence is so great, that no energy remains 
for mental expansion. The fate of the Indian, who 
requires three thousand acres of forest for his sup- 
port, is easily foreseen when he is brought in contact 
with the European, who by agriculture can maintain 
Jiimself on a single acre. So speedily does he vanish, 
that it can scarcely be said that he offers any opposi- 
tion to the invader. Crowded into narrow spaces, like 
the Grecian or Italian peninsulas, and subjected to ex- 
cessive competition, superior civilizations flash out, 
the admiration of all coming time. 

Darwin remarks that vast continental areas favor 
the multiplication of species of animals. The same 
holds good with man. See how the Negro of Africa, 
the Tartar of Asia, the Indian of America, break 
into innumerable tribes, differing widely in appearance 
and in language. But this belongs to the science of 
history, to which a future volume will be devoted, to 
which this is intended as an introduction. 



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teniity. By Henry C. Wright. Paper 30 cents, postage 4 cents ; cloth 50 cent^ 
postage 8 cents. 

Unconstitutionality of Slavery. By Lysander Spooner, Paper $1.00, 

postage 8 cents; cloth $1.50, postage 16 cents. 

Wonderful Mirror. Engravings. 75 cents. 



